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Secession: If Not Now, When?
This billboard is part of the Federal Government people's "Department of Homeland Security". You really do have to provide credentials to government people when they say "Papers Please". We don't even need to put on a fake German accent to drive home the oppression of that.
You can't vote to end this at a state level. So the question is, if NOW isn't the time to secede and leave the oppression of the FedGov behind, when is?
A Declaration of Separation
To The Governments & People of Earth:
We claim the right to exist, and we will defend it. We do not seek to overthrow anything. We do not seek to control anything. We merely wish to be left alone.
All we ever wanted was to live in peace with our friends and neighbors. For a long, long time we bore insults to our liberty; we took blows, we did what we could to avoid injury and we worked through the system to get the offenses to stop. That has now changed. We no longer see any benefit in working through the world’s systems. At some point, working within a system becomes cowardly and immoral; for us, that point has arrived. Regardless of the parties in power, their governments have continued to restrict, restrain and punish us. We hereby reject them all. We hereby withdraw from them all. We hold the ruling states of this world and all that appertains to them to be self-serving and opposed to humanity.
We now withdraw our obedience and reclaim the right to strike back when struck. We will not initiate force, but we do reserve the right to answer it. We did not choose this—it was forced upon us.
To The Governments of Earth:
You are building cages for all that is human. In the name of protection, you have intruded into all areas of human life, far exceeding the reach of any Caesar. You claim ultimate control of our property and our decisions, of our travels and even our identities. You claim ownership of humanity far beyond the dreams of any Emperor of any previous era. Understand clearly: We reject your authority and we reject your legitimacy. We do not believe that you have any right to do the things you do. You have massive power, but no right to impose it upon us and no legitimacy. We have forsaken you. We are no longer your citizens or your subjects.
Your systems are inherently anti-human, even if all their operators are not. We are not merely angry young people. We are fathers and mothers; aunts, uncles and grandparents; we are business owners and trusted employees; we are mechanics and engineers and farmers. We are nurses and accountants and students and executives. We are on every continent.
This is not a burst of outrage; this is a sober declaration that we no longer accept unearned suffering as our role in life.
For long decades we sat quietly, hoping that things would turn around. We took no actions; we suffered along with everyone else. But after having our limits pushed back again and again, we have given up on your systems.
If our fellow inhabitants of this planet wish to accept your rule, they are free to do so. We will not try to stop them. We, however, will no longer accept your constraints upon us. From now on, when you hurt us, we will bite back. If you leave us alone we will leave you alone and you can continue to rule your subjects. We are happy to live quietly. But if you come after us, there will be consequences.
You caused this because of your fetish for control and power. The chief men and women among you are pathologically driven to control everyone and everything that moves upon this planet. You have made yourselves the judge of every human activity. No god-king of the ancient world ever had the power that your systems do.
You have created a world where only the neutered are safe and where only outlaws are free.
To The People of Earth:
We seek nothing from you. We do not want to rule you and we do not want to control you. All we wish is to live on earth in peace. As always, we will be helpful neighbors and generous acquaintances. We will remain honest business partners and trustworthy employees. We will continue to be loving parents and respectful children.
We will not, however, be sacrificial animals. We reject the idea that others have a right to our lives and our property. We will not demand anything from you, and we will no longer acquiesce to any demands upon us. We have left that game. We reject all obligations to any person or organization beyond honesty, fair dealing and a respect for human life. We will shortly explain what we believe, but we are not demanding that you agree with us. All we ask is that you do not try to stop us. Continue to play the game if you wish; we will not try to disrupt it. We have merely walked away from it.
We wish you peace.
To Those Who Will Condemn Us:
We will ignore you.
We welcome and seek the verdict of a just God, before whom we are willing to expose our innermost thoughts. Are you similarly willing?
We would stand openly before all mankind if it were not suicidal. Perhaps some day we will have to accept slaughter for our crime of independence, but not yet.
Your criticism and your malice are much deeper than mere disagreements of strategy or philosophy. You do not oppose our philosophy, you oppose our existence. Our presence in the world means that your precious ideals are false. Some of you would rather kill us than face the loss of your ideologies, just as those like you have either hated or killed every sufficiently independent human.
You present yourselves to the world as compassionate, tolerant and enlightened, but we know that your smooth words are costumes. Oh yes, we know you, servant of the state; don’t forget, we were raised with you. We played with you in the schoolyard, we sat next to you in the classroom. Some of us studied at the same elite universities. We watched as you had your first tastes of power. We were the boys and girls standing next to you. Some of us were your first victims. We are not fooled by your carefully crafted public image.
What We Believe:
#1: Many humans resent the responsibilities that are implied by consciousness. We accept those responsibilities and we embrace consciousness. Rather than letting things happen to us (avoiding consciousness), we accept consciousness and choose to act in our own interest. We do not seek the refuge of blaming others, neither do we take refuge in crowds. We are willing to act on our personal judgment, and we are willing to accept the consequences thereof.
#2: We believe in negative rights for all: That all humans should be free to do whatever they wish, as long as they do not intrude upon others; that no man has a right to the life, liberty or property of another; that we oppose aggression, fraud and coercion.
#3: We do not believe that our way of life, or any other, will make life perfect or trouble-free. We expect crime and disagreements and ugliness, and we are prepared to deal with them. We do not seek a strongman to step in and solve problems for us. We agree to see to them ourselves.
#4: We believe in free and unhindered commerce. So long as exchanges are voluntary and honest, no other party has a right to intervene—before, during or after.
#5: We believe that all individuals should keep their agreements.
#6: We believe that honestly obtained property is fully legitimate and absolute.
#7: We believe that some humans are evil and that they must be faced and dealt with. We accept the fact that this is a difficult area of life.
#8: We believe that humans can self-organize effectively. We expect them to cooperate. We reject impositions of hierarchy and organization.
#9: We believe that all humans are to be held as equals in all matters regarding justice.
#10: We believe that the more a man or woman cares about right and wrong, the more of a threat he or she is perceived to be by governments.
#11: We believe that there are only two true classes of human beings: Those who wish to exercise power upon others—either directly or through intermediaries—and those who have no such desires.
#12: Large organizations and centralization are inherently anti-human. They must rely upon rules rather than principles, treating humans within the organization as obedient tools.
Our Plans:
We are building our own society. We will supplement traditional tools with networking, cryptography, sound money, digital currency and anonymous messaging.
Our society will not be centrally controlled. It will rely solely on voluntary arrangements. We welcome others to join us. We are looking for people who are independent creators of value, people who act more than talk, and people who do the right thing because it is the right thing.
We will develop our own methods of dealing with injustice, built on the principles of negative rights, restitution, integrity and equal justice. We do not forbid anyone from having one foot in each realm—ours and the old realm—although we demand that they do no damage to our realm. We are fully opposed to any use of our realm to facilitate crime in the old realm, such as the hiding of criminal proceeds.
We expect to be loudly condemned, libeled and slandered by the authorities of the old regime. We expect them to defend their power and their image of legitimacy with all means available to them. We expect that many gullible and servile people will believe these lies, at least at first.
We will consider traps laid for us to be criminal offenses. Any who wish to join us are encouraged to distribute this declaration, to act in furtherance of our new society, to voluntarily excel in virtues and to communicate and cooperate with other members of the new society.
Free, unashamed men cannot be ruled.
We are The Free and The Unashamed.
Where'd I go?
I've been quiet. It's no accident.
Everyone always has a great reason for not blogging, but I think mine tops theirs. :) Readers of my blog know that I'm a member of the Free State Project, a lover of liberty turned activist working to continue promoting life, liberty and property in the state of New Hampshire.
Some may also know that I planned to purchase a motorhome, move into that and trek up to New Hampshire well before the Free State Project's goal of 20,000 activists.
When I told my grandmother about my plan, she seemed excited for my wife and I, but when I sent her an e-mail last week updating her on the progress, she seemed shocked. Perhaps I'm not nearly as good of a communicator as I thought. Oh well, it gives me the chance to spell it out clearly.
I am moving to New Hampshire this spring, the summer at the very latest. The plan to purchase a motorhome... Done. We purchased a 34 foot Safari Serengeti earlier this month. We've given notice on our apartment, packed and moved.
I'm currently sitting in the basement of a home in West Virginia. The owner of the home (not me!) likes heat and would prefer to sweat rather than be cold. I, on the other hand, would rather sleep on the roof in the dead of winter than be too warm. So I'm sweating quite a bit, munching on some pasta and drinking beer. All in all, not to shabby!
The motorhome is going to need a LOT of work. That's why were here out in West Virginia, actually. Not having to pay our full rent will allow us to put more of my income into that. Being in "the boonies" will let us work and live in the motorhome without annoyances by neighbors or government bureaucrats until it's ready to go.
Our first "project" was to tow the thing here. It sat about 140 miles east of here, just shy of the Delaware border. The motorhome has been sitting for a few years, and even if we decided to register it with the government people in Maryland (not a fun prospect, I promise) it would be uncertain if the brakes would actually bring the vehicle to a stop. So we towed it so I can do the maintainance and such on it.
Project two will be to finish the roof construction on it. It needs that much work. :)
But it will be fun, and it will be OURS both in terms of ownership and layout/style. This means that between work and the motorhome, my postings will be few and far between. I may break from my normal activity of smashing the state to post updates on the motorhome project, complete with pictures and tutorials since some of the stuff I'll be doing is poorly documented so far.
Once that's done, you'll see a new flurry of activity. I've already got huge plans for New Hampshire and my activism.
Everyone always has a great reason for not blogging, but I think mine tops theirs. :) Readers of my blog know that I'm a member of the Free State Project, a lover of liberty turned activist working to continue promoting life, liberty and property in the state of New Hampshire.
Some may also know that I planned to purchase a motorhome, move into that and trek up to New Hampshire well before the Free State Project's goal of 20,000 activists.
When I told my grandmother about my plan, she seemed excited for my wife and I, but when I sent her an e-mail last week updating her on the progress, she seemed shocked. Perhaps I'm not nearly as good of a communicator as I thought. Oh well, it gives me the chance to spell it out clearly.
I am moving to New Hampshire this spring, the summer at the very latest. The plan to purchase a motorhome... Done. We purchased a 34 foot Safari Serengeti earlier this month. We've given notice on our apartment, packed and moved.
I'm currently sitting in the basement of a home in West Virginia. The owner of the home (not me!) likes heat and would prefer to sweat rather than be cold. I, on the other hand, would rather sleep on the roof in the dead of winter than be too warm. So I'm sweating quite a bit, munching on some pasta and drinking beer. All in all, not to shabby!
The motorhome is going to need a LOT of work. That's why were here out in West Virginia, actually. Not having to pay our full rent will allow us to put more of my income into that. Being in "the boonies" will let us work and live in the motorhome without annoyances by neighbors or government bureaucrats until it's ready to go.
Our first "project" was to tow the thing here. It sat about 140 miles east of here, just shy of the Delaware border. The motorhome has been sitting for a few years, and even if we decided to register it with the government people in Maryland (not a fun prospect, I promise) it would be uncertain if the brakes would actually bring the vehicle to a stop. So we towed it so I can do the maintainance and such on it.
Project two will be to finish the roof construction on it. It needs that much work. :)
But it will be fun, and it will be OURS both in terms of ownership and layout/style. This means that between work and the motorhome, my postings will be few and far between. I may break from my normal activity of smashing the state to post updates on the motorhome project, complete with pictures and tutorials since some of the stuff I'll be doing is poorly documented so far.
Once that's done, you'll see a new flurry of activity. I've already got huge plans for New Hampshire and my activism.
The Obama Body Count
I've added to my sidebar an image that I hope will be updated nearly daily. It's the Obama Body Count.
Too many people over the past near decade have been wrapped up in party politics. When Bush was killing people in the Middle East, Democrats were outraged. Yet very little is made about the fact that Obama himself is continuing the same war, increasing the number of dead. It's all too easy to see the numbers, but remember that every tick on that counter is a person with a family, friends, a home, possibly kids and a spouse.
I stand for Liberty. I was against war when it was Bush's. I'm against it when it's Obama's.
You should be too. If you want to remind people that war is wrong, you can add the Obama Body Counter to your site at http://obamabodycount.org/obc.png
Too many people over the past near decade have been wrapped up in party politics. When Bush was killing people in the Middle East, Democrats were outraged. Yet very little is made about the fact that Obama himself is continuing the same war, increasing the number of dead. It's all too easy to see the numbers, but remember that every tick on that counter is a person with a family, friends, a home, possibly kids and a spouse.
I stand for Liberty. I was against war when it was Bush's. I'm against it when it's Obama's.
You should be too. If you want to remind people that war is wrong, you can add the Obama Body Counter to your site at http://obamabodycount.org/obc.png
Parking Fines Undercut By Competition In Keene, New Hampshire
Sam Konkin III, author of "The New Libertarian Manifesto" and origin of the counter-economic philosophy Agorism recognized that in order for an unrestricted marketplace to emerge there would be inevitable competition to government services.
While not yet the Agorist marketplace written about, competition to so-called "government services" has begun to spring up in Keene, New Hampshire in a small yet significant way.
Downtown Keene, like many places in America, has government enforced parking meters in front of businesses. A parking enforcement person goes by and, if the meter says your vehicle has been parked there too long, issues a ticket. If you pay the ticket, you're simply out of your hard earned money. If you choose not to aggressive men will soon find you and try to take your money with threats of being put in a cage. The tickets that trigger this process come packed in orange envelopes and are tucked under the windshield wiper.
Motorists in Keene may have recently been greeted with a white envelope.
"Good Motorist," is the simple salutation. "You have crossed paths with Robin Hood. The parking meter ran out but my merry men put in more coins." Also in the package is an envelope (complete with postage affixed) to donate to the Robin Hood Parking Meter Fund.
The people calling themselves "City Of Keene" essentially charge $5 for the service of parking downtown. While it is by no means required to provide a donation to the fund, a simple donation of $3 would be a dramatic savings, as well as a more convenient exchange done by anonymous mail.
"People shouldn't be driven out of downtown by the parking fines. They just want to buy things and enjoy themselves, I say we let them!" says an agent of the Robin Hood Parking Meter Fund. "I'm hoping [to] make downtown as friendly to motorists as the big franchise stores on the edge of town by enforcing Ticketless Tuesdays."
It is unclear how competition might change the landscape of the "pay us for parking on land we don't own" industry. The Robin Hood Parking Meter Fund makes no claims to ownership of the land. In other areas, however, the fiercely anti-competitive parking enforcement agencies have responded with force.
In Denver, Colorado for instance, Stanley Yaffe has been threatened with arrest over placing coins into a parking meter. In Cincinnati, Ohio a woman was arrested for the same act, which sparked another man to protest by committing civil disobedience. Stories like this happen all too frequently yet largely escape the notice of most people. The simple fact of the matter is, most people fell that there is nothing they can do to avoid the high prices of a monopolistic industry, and simply acquiesce. Hopefully, given a choice, Keene motorists will reject the monopoly.
Should the Keene Parking Enforcement people try to react violently, however, they might face visual and vocal opposition. The "Meter Feeding Granny" in Ohio inspired one man to protest when she was met with force, yet New Hampshire is the destination of the Free State Project, a movement of thousands of liberty-loving activists who have made dramatic changes to their lives to be active for causes just like this. Specifically, Keene is a hot-spot for Agorist, Voluntaryist and anarcho-capitalist activists who find this new competition to be especially inspiring. Surely if the Robin Hood Parking Meter Fund's agents are harassed or accosted the movers and revitalized liberty-loving natives will respond to expose the aggression to the world.
If you too would like to donate to the Robin Hood Parking Meter Fund, cash donations can be sent to:
Robin Hood Parking Meter Fund
161 Ashuelot St.
Winchester, NH 03470
If you're interested in learning more about the Free State Project you can check out http://www.freestateproject.org/. If you already know you'd like to live in a place where 20,000 liberty activists will be, you can sign-up here.
While not yet the Agorist marketplace written about, competition to so-called "government services" has begun to spring up in Keene, New Hampshire in a small yet significant way.
Downtown Keene, like many places in America, has government enforced parking meters in front of businesses. A parking enforcement person goes by and, if the meter says your vehicle has been parked there too long, issues a ticket. If you pay the ticket, you're simply out of your hard earned money. If you choose not to aggressive men will soon find you and try to take your money with threats of being put in a cage. The tickets that trigger this process come packed in orange envelopes and are tucked under the windshield wiper.
Motorists in Keene may have recently been greeted with a white envelope.
"Good Motorist," is the simple salutation. "You have crossed paths with Robin Hood. The parking meter ran out but my merry men put in more coins." Also in the package is an envelope (complete with postage affixed) to donate to the Robin Hood Parking Meter Fund.
The people calling themselves "City Of Keene" essentially charge $5 for the service of parking downtown. While it is by no means required to provide a donation to the fund, a simple donation of $3 would be a dramatic savings, as well as a more convenient exchange done by anonymous mail.
"People shouldn't be driven out of downtown by the parking fines. They just want to buy things and enjoy themselves, I say we let them!" says an agent of the Robin Hood Parking Meter Fund. "I'm hoping [to] make downtown as friendly to motorists as the big franchise stores on the edge of town by enforcing Ticketless Tuesdays."
It is unclear how competition might change the landscape of the "pay us for parking on land we don't own" industry. The Robin Hood Parking Meter Fund makes no claims to ownership of the land. In other areas, however, the fiercely anti-competitive parking enforcement agencies have responded with force.
In Denver, Colorado for instance, Stanley Yaffe has been threatened with arrest over placing coins into a parking meter. In Cincinnati, Ohio a woman was arrested for the same act, which sparked another man to protest by committing civil disobedience. Stories like this happen all too frequently yet largely escape the notice of most people. The simple fact of the matter is, most people fell that there is nothing they can do to avoid the high prices of a monopolistic industry, and simply acquiesce. Hopefully, given a choice, Keene motorists will reject the monopoly.
Should the Keene Parking Enforcement people try to react violently, however, they might face visual and vocal opposition. The "Meter Feeding Granny" in Ohio inspired one man to protest when she was met with force, yet New Hampshire is the destination of the Free State Project, a movement of thousands of liberty-loving activists who have made dramatic changes to their lives to be active for causes just like this. Specifically, Keene is a hot-spot for Agorist, Voluntaryist and anarcho-capitalist activists who find this new competition to be especially inspiring. Surely if the Robin Hood Parking Meter Fund's agents are harassed or accosted the movers and revitalized liberty-loving natives will respond to expose the aggression to the world.
If you too would like to donate to the Robin Hood Parking Meter Fund, cash donations can be sent to:
Robin Hood Parking Meter Fund
161 Ashuelot St.
Winchester, NH 03470
If you're interested in learning more about the Free State Project you can check out http://www.freestateproject.org/. If you already know you'd like to live in a place where 20,000 liberty activists will be, you can sign-up here.
Kellogg's Drop Phelps, I Drop Kelloggs...
Below is the letter I will be sending to Kellogg's company as of this morning...
***
Dear Reader,
I am writing in response to Kellogg's decision to drop Michael Phelps as an endorser of Kellogg's products. I wholeheartedly object to this decision and hopefully will express why this decision will result in my refusal to purchase Kellogg's products in the future.
Let me first state that I am a former resident of Michigan. As a child, I attended the World Longest Breakfast Table. I recall having my picture taken near a large statue of Tony The Tiger. Especially considering today's tough economic times, it is not a small gesture that I decide to boycott a brand that I have quite literally know all of my life as a staple of the local economy.
Micheal Phelps is a celebrity endorser. His prowess as a great American athlete was trumpeted from the rooftops as he represented the people of America during the Beijing Olympic Games. While Michale Phelps represented America, it seems the Kellogg has rejected the very principles that America was founded on.
Whether or not Michael Phelps inhaled marijuana is of little concern to me. Personally, I choose not to use marijuana because the effects of this drug make me feel paranoid and out of control. However, I am a firm believer that rational, intelligent people should be free to make their own choices, even if I disagree with them. Micheal Phelps responded to this incident pretending to be ashamed and embarrassed, yet I doubt that is the truth.
In truth, nearly a million Americans are arrested and locked in cages as a result of the so-called "War On Drugs". The municipal, state and county police forces are quite content using force to put productive, non-violent Americans in jail cells (which are nothing more than glorified cages) because they choose to set fire to, and inhale the smoke of, a plant. Many of these American would purchase Kellogg's products, even if the weren't aware they were doing so.
The Founders of this nation said that "all men are endowed by their Creator [...] with Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness." When a company is built on the backs of American marketing, processing and patronage, I feel sick to my stomach to know that American businesses reject their customers simply because they choose to inhale cannabis rather than tobacco.
Normally, I consume products from Post and General Mills as well as Kellogg's. In fact, I generally prefer to grab a coffee and Brown Sugar Pop-Tarts from my local 7-11 before driving to work in the morning. Having read the ABC New article 9http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local/story/Kellogg-to-drop-Phelps/Lj2GJ_wW0UCJ3dzEEpI8Ww.cspx) I will make a concerted effort to avoid Kellogg's products when making my breakfast choices.
I strongly urge Kellogg's to reconsider it's position on cannabis consumption. While I understand that Kellogg's has a strong market aimed at children and young adults, I think it is grossly irresponsible to single out the use of cannabis as more harmful as any other drug. Alcohol is responsible for many more deaths per year than cannabis, yet Kellogg's makes no concessions for alcohol use by it's sponsors. I simply ask that Kellogg's apply the same criteria to all of it's sponsors. If a sponsor consumes alcoholic beverages, and conducts him or herself in a dignified manor, Kellogg should continue to sponsor them. If a person chooses to smoke cannabis and remain dignified and reasonable, Kellogg should continue to sponsor them. Additionally, should a sober sponsor of Kellogg dishonor the brand, Kellogg should choose to discontinue their affiliation because of the damage to the brand and not the drug. I would wager that Kellogg's does NOT fire employees who have responsibly consumed alcohol while employed by the company.
I strongly hope that Kellogg's will regain my patronage by reversing it's stance on the stigmatization of cannabis use, and choose to re-endorse Michael Phelps as a sponsor.
***
If you support the responsible use of so-called "hard drugs", please consider writing your letter of support to:
Kellogg Consumer Affairs
P.O. Box CAMB
Battle Creek, MI
49016
***
Dear Reader,
I am writing in response to Kellogg's decision to drop Michael Phelps as an endorser of Kellogg's products. I wholeheartedly object to this decision and hopefully will express why this decision will result in my refusal to purchase Kellogg's products in the future.
Let me first state that I am a former resident of Michigan. As a child, I attended the World Longest Breakfast Table. I recall having my picture taken near a large statue of Tony The Tiger. Especially considering today's tough economic times, it is not a small gesture that I decide to boycott a brand that I have quite literally know all of my life as a staple of the local economy.
Micheal Phelps is a celebrity endorser. His prowess as a great American athlete was trumpeted from the rooftops as he represented the people of America during the Beijing Olympic Games. While Michale Phelps represented America, it seems the Kellogg has rejected the very principles that America was founded on.
Whether or not Michael Phelps inhaled marijuana is of little concern to me. Personally, I choose not to use marijuana because the effects of this drug make me feel paranoid and out of control. However, I am a firm believer that rational, intelligent people should be free to make their own choices, even if I disagree with them. Micheal Phelps responded to this incident pretending to be ashamed and embarrassed, yet I doubt that is the truth.
In truth, nearly a million Americans are arrested and locked in cages as a result of the so-called "War On Drugs". The municipal, state and county police forces are quite content using force to put productive, non-violent Americans in jail cells (which are nothing more than glorified cages) because they choose to set fire to, and inhale the smoke of, a plant. Many of these American would purchase Kellogg's products, even if the weren't aware they were doing so.
The Founders of this nation said that "all men are endowed by their Creator [...] with Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness." When a company is built on the backs of American marketing, processing and patronage, I feel sick to my stomach to know that American businesses reject their customers simply because they choose to inhale cannabis rather than tobacco.
Normally, I consume products from Post and General Mills as well as Kellogg's. In fact, I generally prefer to grab a coffee and Brown Sugar Pop-Tarts from my local 7-11 before driving to work in the morning. Having read the ABC New article 9http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local/story/Kellogg-to-drop-Phelps/Lj2GJ_wW0UCJ3dzEEpI8Ww.cspx) I will make a concerted effort to avoid Kellogg's products when making my breakfast choices.
I strongly urge Kellogg's to reconsider it's position on cannabis consumption. While I understand that Kellogg's has a strong market aimed at children and young adults, I think it is grossly irresponsible to single out the use of cannabis as more harmful as any other drug. Alcohol is responsible for many more deaths per year than cannabis, yet Kellogg's makes no concessions for alcohol use by it's sponsors. I simply ask that Kellogg's apply the same criteria to all of it's sponsors. If a sponsor consumes alcoholic beverages, and conducts him or herself in a dignified manor, Kellogg should continue to sponsor them. If a person chooses to smoke cannabis and remain dignified and reasonable, Kellogg should continue to sponsor them. Additionally, should a sober sponsor of Kellogg dishonor the brand, Kellogg should choose to discontinue their affiliation because of the damage to the brand and not the drug. I would wager that Kellogg's does NOT fire employees who have responsibly consumed alcohol while employed by the company.
I strongly hope that Kellogg's will regain my patronage by reversing it's stance on the stigmatization of cannabis use, and choose to re-endorse Michael Phelps as a sponsor.
***
If you support the responsible use of so-called "hard drugs", please consider writing your letter of support to:
Kellogg Consumer Affairs
P.O. Box CAMB
Battle Creek, MI
49016
My Guest Article On Bureaucrash
I correspond with several people who seek out my opinions on various things, but I think this is the first time that I've ever written a blog post for another website.
I've written a post over at Bureaucrash about the threats of jail time that talk show host Ian Freeman received because he attended a protest.
http://bureaucrash.com/2009/01/16/prosecuted-for-attending-civil-disobedience-rally-it-could-happen-to-nh-based-freedom-fighter-ian-freeman/
Please check it out and give some other parts of the site some time if you like it. Bureaucrash Social is a neat place. :)
I've written a post over at Bureaucrash about the threats of jail time that talk show host Ian Freeman received because he attended a protest.
http://bureaucrash.com/2009/01/16/prosecuted-for-attending-civil-disobedience-rally-it-could-happen-to-nh-based-freedom-fighter-ian-freeman/
Please check it out and give some other parts of the site some time if you like it. Bureaucrash Social is a neat place. :)
Meme - My reflections on 2008
I'm falling in line and participating in an internet meme. Go figure.
I’ve copied the questions from Danjiel Orsolic’s entry.
Q: What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
A: Accidentally CC'ed a pro-gun "hurray" to a mailing list full of people who are mostly European and socialist leaning. There were some harsh backlashes from that, and I managed to root a few gun lovers from that list!
Q: Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for the next year?
A: I do not make New Year's Resolutions. One thing about my personal philosophy is that I don't want to be a slave to time. New Years is an excuse to party and get drunk, but realistically, it's no different than any other day. I try to learn something new every day, stretch myself a little bit more, and that's good enough. I make New Day's resolutions and sometimes I meet them!
Q: Did anyone close to you give birth?
A: Nope.
Q: Did anyone close to you die?
A: Nope.
Q: What countries/states did you visit?
A: Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New York, New Jersey and New Hampshire.
Q: What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
A: Freedom. Too vague? I'd like to think of time a lot less. Essentially, right now I think in terms of days and "morning", "afternoon" and "late". I'm also aware of "weekday", "payday" and "weekend". I'd say also "understanding of my wife". This might be unfair, since it gets deeper everyday and that has been true of 2008 too, but it will be deeper than it was in 2008, I'm sure. These two things together will hopefully come to a head in 2009 as we ditch our current lifestyle and fall into something that suits us much better. :)
Q: What was your biggest failure of the year ?
A: I can't think of anything specifically. I think perhaps I really have internalized that while "Learn from your mistakes" thing. I've had some really difficult times with my wife in 2008, and in some points felt really angry, inadequate and resentful. Yet at the same time, the foundation of our relationship let us move from this and we're stronger now than we were when we began. I can't call that a failure but I might have if you asked me at the time.
Q: What was your biggest achievement ?
A: I committed to move to New Hampshire as part of the Free State Project. I managed to convince my wife to. And Danjiel, when 20K other do. And Edison Franklin. I sat at a table for two days talking about the FSP and my ideology and felt GREAT doing it. Realistically, I think that got very few people "turned on" to liberty, but it was an extension of feeling confident in my ideology and it was VERY empowering.
Q: Did you suffer illness or injury?
A: No. I'm bulletproof and immune to pathogens. Didn't you know?
Q: What was the best thing you bought?
A: My Honda Element, Bluebeard.
Q: Whose behavior merited celebration?
A: Lauren Canario. Ian Freeman. Denis Goddard. Mark Edge. Russell Kanning. Kira Kanning. Kat Kanning. Jim Johnson. Dale Everett. A handful of people I know only by a single name, like AnarchoJesse and Puke. There's probably dozens more in New Hampshire spreading the ideas of freedom and non-aggression through non-cooperative means. Those people, I celebrate.
Of course, that's not to say they're the only people making waves and growing freedom, they're just the most visible ones to me.
Q: Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
A: Hans Reiser. Oddly, less because he killed his wife. I actually sent him a letter prior to him revealing the location of Nina's body. The letter was fine but the tone conveyed a sense of arrogance and... I'm not sure how to phrase that exactly. People hurt people, even gruesomely sometimes. I understand that. But there was a sense of refusal to accept responsibility for his actions and the impact of his actions on his children. I dunno, it was disturbing.
Q: Where did most of your money go?
A: To maintaining. Meh. I hate it. It'll stop soon enough. The lifestyle I live now isn't what I want and I'm finally going to break from that.
Q: What did you get really, really, really excited about?
A: The Free State Project. This was the main impetus of 2008 for me. A sub-moment was when my wife finally began getting excited about the move and community. Finally, we're going to begin a mobile lifestyle as full-time RVers, at least for a while. This and the implications of that have me very excited.
Q: What song will always remind you of 2008?
A: Aimee Allen's "Ron Paul Revolution". Much less that it was Ron Paul but there's so very little pro-liberty music. Most music is dominated by liberal fluff and there's some music that's counter-liberal. Seeing a well produced, catchy video with an attractive female in it... It made me feel that liberty might be going mainstream and that's a damn memorable thing.
Q: Compared to last year, are you:
* happier or sadder ? Happier, mostly. In general, I'm more of everything, but I'm usually happy.
* thinner or fatter ? Fatter.
* richer or poorer ? Richer. I've even made some more money.
Q: What do you wish you’d done more of ?
A: Goal setting. I know where I want to go sometimes but setting goals that I can reach to show me I'm getting there sometimes evokes positive feelings.
Q: What do you wish you’d done less of ?
A: Spending money on useless stuff.
Q: How did you spend Christmas ?
A: Watching TV.
Q: Did you fall in love in 2008?
A: Yep!
Q: How many one-night stands?
A: None.
Q: What was your favorite TV program ?
A: I watched the entire series "Firefly" on DVD. It's not new, but that ranks pretty high. I also watched all of "Dexter" and "Weeds" and both are awesome. I'm still in love with "House". I watched "Heroes" again this year. It makes me miss "The 4400" and that makes me mad.
Q: Did you make a friend with anyone that you didn’t know this time last year?
A: Yes, several.
Q: What was the best book you read?
A: "The Market for Liberty" by Morris and Linda Tannehill was the most personally impacting. "Elantris" by Brandon Sanderson was also very enjoyable to read and I think I have recommended "Healing Our World" by Dr. Mary Ruwart more than any other.
Q: What was your greatest musical discovery?
A: I'm starting to really dig Weezer. I've heard some trance that I actually purchased because I liked it so much.
Q: What did you want and get?
A: Most everything.
Q: What did you want and not get?
A: A working phone, powered by Free Software. Openmoko was a spectacular failure in my opinion. Those wounds still sting.
Q: What was your favorite film of this year?
A: Serenity. It's not new, but I saw it for the first time this year.
Q: What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
A: Nothing special at all. In fact, this was the first year I went the ENTIRE day without hearing "Happy Birthday" at all. I enjoyed that very much. I get a day older every day, and I dislike the pretense. I'm 24... I think. I really do forget sometime.
Q: What one thing would have made you year immeasurably more satisfying?
A: The abolishment of coercive force that people today call "Government". I don't take kindly to being threatened and made to feel afraid.
Q: How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
A: Expanding. I don't care about what other people think in terms of fashion, but I made some changes to my personal appearance. I discovered that I like the color green in clothing, so a lot of my shirts have included green. I also finally took the plunge and shaved my head bald and it's absolutely amazing!
Q: What kept you sane?
A: Knowing it will keep getting better. That is, of course, assuming I was sane to start.
Q: Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
A: Summer Glau. She's hot and was plastered all over the TV with the Terminator series.
Q: What political issue stirred you the most?
A: All of them? I don't separate "politics" from day to day life. I think that kind of separation is used by aggressors to justify what they do (i.e. One man taking another man's money is "theft" unless you're "being political" in which case it's "taxes".) My particular issues at this point are an end to the Drug War. That's the biggest for me right now. Secondly would probably be an expansion of property ownership rights (i.e. anybody owning any property is acceptable including felons owning guns) and property protection rights (i.e. "Castle Laws"). Breaking down socio-sexual taboo is always on the list.
Q: Who did you miss?
A: Seton Williams, a friend who was killed a few years ago in a car accident. And my wife of course, but I know she'll keep coming home from work. :P
Q: Who was the best new person you met?
A: Pete Eyre probably tops the list. He's a pro-liberty, agorist and voluntaryist activism rockstar who has me in awe. I met Ian Freeman and Mark Edge, Lauren Canario and Russell Kanning earlier this year and they're awesome too.
Q: Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
A: Every human being owns him- or herself. The initiation of force or fraud against other people is wrong. That's it.
It's a simple concept, but the life lesson I really take from that is how many "buts" and "though" and "what ifs" people have to pollute that simple concept. It's hard to put that into words though. This "there is nothing else" is so final and absolute and right.
Q: Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
A: "Who needs stupid books. They are for petty crooks. And I will learn by studying the lessons in my dreams."
I’ve copied the questions from Danjiel Orsolic’s entry.
Q: What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
A: Accidentally CC'ed a pro-gun "hurray" to a mailing list full of people who are mostly European and socialist leaning. There were some harsh backlashes from that, and I managed to root a few gun lovers from that list!
Q: Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for the next year?
A: I do not make New Year's Resolutions. One thing about my personal philosophy is that I don't want to be a slave to time. New Years is an excuse to party and get drunk, but realistically, it's no different than any other day. I try to learn something new every day, stretch myself a little bit more, and that's good enough. I make New Day's resolutions and sometimes I meet them!
Q: Did anyone close to you give birth?
A: Nope.
Q: Did anyone close to you die?
A: Nope.
Q: What countries/states did you visit?
A: Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New York, New Jersey and New Hampshire.
Q: What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
A: Freedom. Too vague? I'd like to think of time a lot less. Essentially, right now I think in terms of days and "morning", "afternoon" and "late". I'm also aware of "weekday", "payday" and "weekend". I'd say also "understanding of my wife". This might be unfair, since it gets deeper everyday and that has been true of 2008 too, but it will be deeper than it was in 2008, I'm sure. These two things together will hopefully come to a head in 2009 as we ditch our current lifestyle and fall into something that suits us much better. :)
Q: What was your biggest failure of the year ?
A: I can't think of anything specifically. I think perhaps I really have internalized that while "Learn from your mistakes" thing. I've had some really difficult times with my wife in 2008, and in some points felt really angry, inadequate and resentful. Yet at the same time, the foundation of our relationship let us move from this and we're stronger now than we were when we began. I can't call that a failure but I might have if you asked me at the time.
Q: What was your biggest achievement ?
A: I committed to move to New Hampshire as part of the Free State Project. I managed to convince my wife to. And Danjiel, when 20K other do. And Edison Franklin. I sat at a table for two days talking about the FSP and my ideology and felt GREAT doing it. Realistically, I think that got very few people "turned on" to liberty, but it was an extension of feeling confident in my ideology and it was VERY empowering.
Q: Did you suffer illness or injury?
A: No. I'm bulletproof and immune to pathogens. Didn't you know?
Q: What was the best thing you bought?
A: My Honda Element, Bluebeard.
Q: Whose behavior merited celebration?
A: Lauren Canario. Ian Freeman. Denis Goddard. Mark Edge. Russell Kanning. Kira Kanning. Kat Kanning. Jim Johnson. Dale Everett. A handful of people I know only by a single name, like AnarchoJesse and Puke. There's probably dozens more in New Hampshire spreading the ideas of freedom and non-aggression through non-cooperative means. Those people, I celebrate.
Of course, that's not to say they're the only people making waves and growing freedom, they're just the most visible ones to me.
Q: Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
A: Hans Reiser. Oddly, less because he killed his wife. I actually sent him a letter prior to him revealing the location of Nina's body. The letter was fine but the tone conveyed a sense of arrogance and... I'm not sure how to phrase that exactly. People hurt people, even gruesomely sometimes. I understand that. But there was a sense of refusal to accept responsibility for his actions and the impact of his actions on his children. I dunno, it was disturbing.
Q: Where did most of your money go?
A: To maintaining. Meh. I hate it. It'll stop soon enough. The lifestyle I live now isn't what I want and I'm finally going to break from that.
Q: What did you get really, really, really excited about?
A: The Free State Project. This was the main impetus of 2008 for me. A sub-moment was when my wife finally began getting excited about the move and community. Finally, we're going to begin a mobile lifestyle as full-time RVers, at least for a while. This and the implications of that have me very excited.
Q: What song will always remind you of 2008?
A: Aimee Allen's "Ron Paul Revolution". Much less that it was Ron Paul but there's so very little pro-liberty music. Most music is dominated by liberal fluff and there's some music that's counter-liberal. Seeing a well produced, catchy video with an attractive female in it... It made me feel that liberty might be going mainstream and that's a damn memorable thing.
Q: Compared to last year, are you:
* happier or sadder ? Happier, mostly. In general, I'm more of everything, but I'm usually happy.
* thinner or fatter ? Fatter.
* richer or poorer ? Richer. I've even made some more money.
Q: What do you wish you’d done more of ?
A: Goal setting. I know where I want to go sometimes but setting goals that I can reach to show me I'm getting there sometimes evokes positive feelings.
Q: What do you wish you’d done less of ?
A: Spending money on useless stuff.
Q: How did you spend Christmas ?
A: Watching TV.
Q: Did you fall in love in 2008?
A: Yep!
Q: How many one-night stands?
A: None.
Q: What was your favorite TV program ?
A: I watched the entire series "Firefly" on DVD. It's not new, but that ranks pretty high. I also watched all of "Dexter" and "Weeds" and both are awesome. I'm still in love with "House". I watched "Heroes" again this year. It makes me miss "The 4400" and that makes me mad.
Q: Did you make a friend with anyone that you didn’t know this time last year?
A: Yes, several.
Q: What was the best book you read?
A: "The Market for Liberty" by Morris and Linda Tannehill was the most personally impacting. "Elantris" by Brandon Sanderson was also very enjoyable to read and I think I have recommended "Healing Our World" by Dr. Mary Ruwart more than any other.
Q: What was your greatest musical discovery?
A: I'm starting to really dig Weezer. I've heard some trance that I actually purchased because I liked it so much.
Q: What did you want and get?
A: Most everything.
Q: What did you want and not get?
A: A working phone, powered by Free Software. Openmoko was a spectacular failure in my opinion. Those wounds still sting.
Q: What was your favorite film of this year?
A: Serenity. It's not new, but I saw it for the first time this year.
Q: What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
A: Nothing special at all. In fact, this was the first year I went the ENTIRE day without hearing "Happy Birthday" at all. I enjoyed that very much. I get a day older every day, and I dislike the pretense. I'm 24... I think. I really do forget sometime.
Q: What one thing would have made you year immeasurably more satisfying?
A: The abolishment of coercive force that people today call "Government". I don't take kindly to being threatened and made to feel afraid.
Q: How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
A: Expanding. I don't care about what other people think in terms of fashion, but I made some changes to my personal appearance. I discovered that I like the color green in clothing, so a lot of my shirts have included green. I also finally took the plunge and shaved my head bald and it's absolutely amazing!
Q: What kept you sane?
A: Knowing it will keep getting better. That is, of course, assuming I was sane to start.
Q: Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
A: Summer Glau. She's hot and was plastered all over the TV with the Terminator series.
Q: What political issue stirred you the most?
A: All of them? I don't separate "politics" from day to day life. I think that kind of separation is used by aggressors to justify what they do (i.e. One man taking another man's money is "theft" unless you're "being political" in which case it's "taxes".) My particular issues at this point are an end to the Drug War. That's the biggest for me right now. Secondly would probably be an expansion of property ownership rights (i.e. anybody owning any property is acceptable including felons owning guns) and property protection rights (i.e. "Castle Laws"). Breaking down socio-sexual taboo is always on the list.
Q: Who did you miss?
A: Seton Williams, a friend who was killed a few years ago in a car accident. And my wife of course, but I know she'll keep coming home from work. :P
Q: Who was the best new person you met?
A: Pete Eyre probably tops the list. He's a pro-liberty, agorist and voluntaryist activism rockstar who has me in awe. I met Ian Freeman and Mark Edge, Lauren Canario and Russell Kanning earlier this year and they're awesome too.
Q: Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
A: Every human being owns him- or herself. The initiation of force or fraud against other people is wrong. That's it.
It's a simple concept, but the life lesson I really take from that is how many "buts" and "though" and "what ifs" people have to pollute that simple concept. It's hard to put that into words though. This "there is nothing else" is so final and absolute and right.
Q: Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
A: "Who needs stupid books. They are for petty crooks. And I will learn by studying the lessons in my dreams."
Visual Review of 2008
I just came across a great pictorial review of 2008, with what can be expected in 2009. There are some disturbing images in there, but that's the point. It also seems that this was his final blog entry. More importantly though, reflect.
The Windows Seat - Day 3: Interfaces
I'm several days into this Windows trial and I'm actually beginning to get some strong feelings about the whole thing. First and foremost, Windows isn't evil, it's software. Whatever you might think about Microsoft is mostly irrelevant when discussing software. Hell, if you want to get really involved, I didn't purchase Windows Server 2008 Enterprise. I didn't purchase a product who's company purchased it. I downloaded the installer from Microsoft's site (They offer their entire OS for free for almost a year, legit.) and at 1.7GB I've cost Microsoft a little bit of money.
So, right now I'll hit on something I noticed about user interfaces, and less a discussion of them, more about how I regard them. On Windows, software uses different toolkits and often times there are visual differences. Windows Media Player looks different than Roxio. VirtualBox is different than Firefox.
On Linux, when KDE applications and Gnome applications don't mix well, it annoyed the hell out of me. I've always ranted about the dissimilarity, praised the day Qt added in a way to accept a Gnome theme. Lauded over gtk-qt-engine. I thought Windows' inconsistency would kill me.
It hasn't. In fact, I kind of like it.
I was having an internal dialog trying to figure out just why it is because I really am shocked by this. I've mentioned this as a pet peeve several times in the past, including one to LinuxInsider and it was in fact published. So this is a big, damn, deal.
The realization was, until yesterday, I looked at my PC as an appliance. It was something that I used to get something done. This appliance happened to have the features of just about everything. There's nothing wrong with this, but Windows doesn't do the same thing.
On Windows, the applications are each appliances, focused on doing one thing in a pleasing manner. If the application needs to look different to do that well, then so be it. The shift from "computer as appliance" to "applications as appliances", when done well, really meshes to make me enjoy using applications. I have to say that I really like Windows Photo Gallery. It's got all of the features that I like in a really basic photo manager. It's also got a shiny, dark theme that I like a lot and it's simple enough that I don't have to think about "managing photos". When I'm using it, I'm thinking about how good (or bad!) my photos are.
I'm REALLY looking for a Linux-side application that can hit Windows Photo Gallery on the head. I know that there are a ton of basic editing applications and simple managers, and a plethora of super-duper sophisticated solutions, but that balance is awesome. I'd love to leverage that on Linux.
So, right now I'll hit on something I noticed about user interfaces, and less a discussion of them, more about how I regard them. On Windows, software uses different toolkits and often times there are visual differences. Windows Media Player looks different than Roxio. VirtualBox is different than Firefox.
On Linux, when KDE applications and Gnome applications don't mix well, it annoyed the hell out of me. I've always ranted about the dissimilarity, praised the day Qt added in a way to accept a Gnome theme. Lauded over gtk-qt-engine. I thought Windows' inconsistency would kill me.
It hasn't. In fact, I kind of like it.
I was having an internal dialog trying to figure out just why it is because I really am shocked by this. I've mentioned this as a pet peeve several times in the past, including one to LinuxInsider and it was in fact published. So this is a big, damn, deal.
The realization was, until yesterday, I looked at my PC as an appliance. It was something that I used to get something done. This appliance happened to have the features of just about everything. There's nothing wrong with this, but Windows doesn't do the same thing.
On Windows, the applications are each appliances, focused on doing one thing in a pleasing manner. If the application needs to look different to do that well, then so be it. The shift from "computer as appliance" to "applications as appliances", when done well, really meshes to make me enjoy using applications. I have to say that I really like Windows Photo Gallery. It's got all of the features that I like in a really basic photo manager. It's also got a shiny, dark theme that I like a lot and it's simple enough that I don't have to think about "managing photos". When I'm using it, I'm thinking about how good (or bad!) my photos are.
I'm REALLY looking for a Linux-side application that can hit Windows Photo Gallery on the head. I know that there are a ton of basic editing applications and simple managers, and a plethora of super-duper sophisticated solutions, but that balance is awesome. I'd love to leverage that on Linux.
The Windows Seat - Day 1: Shutdown
Windows Server 2008 has something that's pretty neat and it deals with an area that I've never before thought about. Shutdown.
When running as the Administrator account, every time you hit "Restart" or "Shutdown" manually, a box pops up for you to enter the reason why the system is shutting down.
When you reboot due to upgrades, you're not prompted. I assume that it's possible to go back and look at the logs later but I've not confirmed this. There's an overwhelming amount of data in the Windows Server logging and information center and I didn't want to dig too deeply.
For a workstation or server, this is a neat feature. It would help me get a better overview of exactly what it is that brings my systems down. As a server administrator, uptime is important to me and my home desktops are run in a manner similar.
For the "average user" I can imagine this kind of prompt would quickly get annoying but I'd LOVE it and I know this is one feature that I've not seen in any desktop environment in Linux so far.
On the flip-side, I've got a complaint about Windows shutdowns too. They don't happen if you're restarting runaway processes. In specific, I was running VirtualBox (I'm noticing a theme... VirtualBox + Windows = Error) when starting a quickly after a shutdown and the VM froze. I then used the task manager to kill both VirtualBox and the VM process and it vanished like normal. Yet when I went to move or delete an ISO file that was mounted as a virtual CD drive within the VM, I got an "This file is in use" error. I then tried to do a shutdown (As Administrator - regular users can't do this by default. Awesome!) and it actually hung on "Shutting down services". After 3 minutes of seeing the blue-green screen, I physically reset the box.
I suppose it might be theoretically possible for Linux to be affected by the same thing, but I've never seen it. I was cringing to think how I'd feel if the runaway service has been my HTTP server and my remote server decided to lock up between "Break the internet connection" and "stop and restart power".
I'm going to call this one a strong win for Linux, this hits to the very stability of the system. I would, however, love to have the interactive shutdown log on Linux. I'll do some searching for something like it but as always, suggestions are always welcomed.
When running as the Administrator account, every time you hit "Restart" or "Shutdown" manually, a box pops up for you to enter the reason why the system is shutting down.
When you reboot due to upgrades, you're not prompted. I assume that it's possible to go back and look at the logs later but I've not confirmed this. There's an overwhelming amount of data in the Windows Server logging and information center and I didn't want to dig too deeply.
For a workstation or server, this is a neat feature. It would help me get a better overview of exactly what it is that brings my systems down. As a server administrator, uptime is important to me and my home desktops are run in a manner similar.
For the "average user" I can imagine this kind of prompt would quickly get annoying but I'd LOVE it and I know this is one feature that I've not seen in any desktop environment in Linux so far.
On the flip-side, I've got a complaint about Windows shutdowns too. They don't happen if you're restarting runaway processes. In specific, I was running VirtualBox (I'm noticing a theme... VirtualBox + Windows = Error) when starting a quickly after a shutdown and the VM froze. I then used the task manager to kill both VirtualBox and the VM process and it vanished like normal. Yet when I went to move or delete an ISO file that was mounted as a virtual CD drive within the VM, I got an "This file is in use" error. I then tried to do a shutdown (As Administrator - regular users can't do this by default. Awesome!) and it actually hung on "Shutting down services". After 3 minutes of seeing the blue-green screen, I physically reset the box.
I suppose it might be theoretically possible for Linux to be affected by the same thing, but I've never seen it. I was cringing to think how I'd feel if the runaway service has been my HTTP server and my remote server decided to lock up between "Break the internet connection" and "stop and restart power".
I'm going to call this one a strong win for Linux, this hits to the very stability of the system. I would, however, love to have the interactive shutdown log on Linux. I'll do some searching for something like it but as always, suggestions are always welcomed.
The Windows Seat - Day 0: Virtualization and Bitness
On the first full day with Windows Server 2008, I began installing software to take care of the day to day needs and time-killers I'm familiar with from Linux.
On Linux, I make heavy use of KVM virtualization. Since KVM isn't a part of Windows, I decided to try out the port of VirtualBox. It ran pretty well, except that on the first run of the software caused my USB mouse to be unresponsive. I promptly unplugged the mouse and reported the bug to VirtualBox.
Later on, I was running a virtual machine with about 1.5 GB of RAM when I began having a bout of BSODs. It was pretty consistent. Any time I ran the VM and started the World of Warcraft downloader, I'd get the BSOD. The error was akin to "LIRQ_GREATER_OR_LESS_THAN", I don't recall the specifics. When I Googled this error, I found several forums and complaints about this, mainly dealing with Vista.
The long and short of it is that this error frequently happens when attempting to address memory greater than the bitness handled by the OS. In this case, I was running Windows Server 2008 Enterprise x86 yet giving a decent amount of space to the VMs and then making the OS crap itself.
To correct this, I installed the x64 version of Windows. Now, I'm well aware that my current PC is an AMD64. All new PCs sold in the past three years or so have been AMD64. There is, however, still a ton of doubt and speculation about using x64. Will there be compatibility issues? Will the programs I want run on my system? My last experiences with Windows were in 32-bit land, and 64-bit applications had issues. I wanted to avoid this for my trek into RedmondOS so I used the x86 version.
There aren't any problems for me. In fact, in this regard, Windows is showing a strength. 64-bit applications run right alongside 32-bit apps. Windows solves this problem by isolating 32-bit apps into it's own emulation/compatibility layer, similar to the way the 32-bit Flash plugin is handled in Linux. I have to say honestly, I've not run into problems installing software on Windows because of bitness, but I have seen packages in the Debian repo that are "referred to but missing" because they exist on one arch but not another.
For this aspect, Windows actually win. I'd recommend that anybody else running Windows on a fresh install pick the version that suits their HARDWARE which almost always means "x64" today.
My wife's computer arrived today from Dell. This device has 4GB of RAM which means either she'll be running a 64-bit OS or be running into bitness issues. But know I'm prepared. :)
On Linux, I make heavy use of KVM virtualization. Since KVM isn't a part of Windows, I decided to try out the port of VirtualBox. It ran pretty well, except that on the first run of the software caused my USB mouse to be unresponsive. I promptly unplugged the mouse and reported the bug to VirtualBox.
Later on, I was running a virtual machine with about 1.5 GB of RAM when I began having a bout of BSODs. It was pretty consistent. Any time I ran the VM and started the World of Warcraft downloader, I'd get the BSOD. The error was akin to "LIRQ_GREATER_OR_LESS_THAN", I don't recall the specifics. When I Googled this error, I found several forums and complaints about this, mainly dealing with Vista.
The long and short of it is that this error frequently happens when attempting to address memory greater than the bitness handled by the OS. In this case, I was running Windows Server 2008 Enterprise x86 yet giving a decent amount of space to the VMs and then making the OS crap itself.
To correct this, I installed the x64 version of Windows. Now, I'm well aware that my current PC is an AMD64. All new PCs sold in the past three years or so have been AMD64. There is, however, still a ton of doubt and speculation about using x64. Will there be compatibility issues? Will the programs I want run on my system? My last experiences with Windows were in 32-bit land, and 64-bit applications had issues. I wanted to avoid this for my trek into RedmondOS so I used the x86 version.
There aren't any problems for me. In fact, in this regard, Windows is showing a strength. 64-bit applications run right alongside 32-bit apps. Windows solves this problem by isolating 32-bit apps into it's own emulation/compatibility layer, similar to the way the 32-bit Flash plugin is handled in Linux. I have to say honestly, I've not run into problems installing software on Windows because of bitness, but I have seen packages in the Debian repo that are "referred to but missing" because they exist on one arch but not another.
For this aspect, Windows actually win. I'd recommend that anybody else running Windows on a fresh install pick the version that suits their HARDWARE which almost always means "x64" today.
My wife's computer arrived today from Dell. This device has 4GB of RAM which means either she'll be running a 64-bit OS or be running into bitness issues. But know I'm prepared. :)
The Windows Seat - Day 0: BIOS
On the 28th of December, I announced my week long trial of Windows Server 2008 Enterprise, a departure from my daily use of Linux (including at work) for the past several years.
The very first difference I'd like to bring up is the system hardware itself. I currently run two PCs that are custom built by me and nearly identical, with the exception of the hard drive capacity. Both run a Gigabyte GA-965GM-S2, revision 1 motherboard with Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Processor and 4GB of DDR RAM. My home computer has an nVidia GeForce 7300 GS PCI-e card on a 17" Dell CRT monitor. My work PC is using the integrated Intel G965 chipset and is attached to a 22" BENQ wide screen TFT.
It's important to note that both systems use the same motherboard, and more specifically, the same BIOS, Gigabyte's F5. When I first put in the Windows Server 2008 installer, I immediately got a blue screen of death indicating to me that my BIOS was out-of-date and to contact the vendor for a newer one. The alleged culprit was non-compliance with ACPI.
I did manage to update both BIOSes. My home PC was updated with a formatted USB Key and my work by some complex juggling of LVM to make room for a FAT32 formatted bootable partition that the motherboard's flash utility could recognize. I owe a huge debt to these guys for clear and simple instructions on how to flash my BIOS in a non-standard way.
The biggest thing that strikes me about the Windows/Linux split is that Linux doesn't ever assume anything about hardware. Sure, it does assume that you're on the right architecture and that you have some way to give the PC information. It doesn't, however, expect you to have a certain BIOS version, a certain graphics card, a special TPM module or the like.
Linux developers learn to deal with the quirks of each system. The odds are that my system really WAS not compliant with ACPI but Linux never complained. It didn't deny me permission to install until it was.
This isn't entirely a win for Linux though. I have to wonder how much crappy code is in Linux dealing with exactly this kind of thing? How long has suspend/resume, for instance, been hindered by tossing the expectation that things will "work properly"? How many people might be dealing with hardware bugs, and complaining to Canonical (or their vendor of choice) when things don't wake from sleep when it's actually a crappy (as in, non-standard complaint) BIOS from a motherboard vendor?
Having a minimum required BIOS version is a new one for me, and this even before my first full day with Windows. This is really going to be interesting.
The very first difference I'd like to bring up is the system hardware itself. I currently run two PCs that are custom built by me and nearly identical, with the exception of the hard drive capacity. Both run a Gigabyte GA-965GM-S2, revision 1 motherboard with Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Processor and 4GB of DDR RAM. My home computer has an nVidia GeForce 7300 GS PCI-e card on a 17" Dell CRT monitor. My work PC is using the integrated Intel G965 chipset and is attached to a 22" BENQ wide screen TFT.
It's important to note that both systems use the same motherboard, and more specifically, the same BIOS, Gigabyte's F5. When I first put in the Windows Server 2008 installer, I immediately got a blue screen of death indicating to me that my BIOS was out-of-date and to contact the vendor for a newer one. The alleged culprit was non-compliance with ACPI.
I did manage to update both BIOSes. My home PC was updated with a formatted USB Key and my work by some complex juggling of LVM to make room for a FAT32 formatted bootable partition that the motherboard's flash utility could recognize. I owe a huge debt to these guys for clear and simple instructions on how to flash my BIOS in a non-standard way.
The biggest thing that strikes me about the Windows/Linux split is that Linux doesn't ever assume anything about hardware. Sure, it does assume that you're on the right architecture and that you have some way to give the PC information. It doesn't, however, expect you to have a certain BIOS version, a certain graphics card, a special TPM module or the like.
Linux developers learn to deal with the quirks of each system. The odds are that my system really WAS not compliant with ACPI but Linux never complained. It didn't deny me permission to install until it was.
This isn't entirely a win for Linux though. I have to wonder how much crappy code is in Linux dealing with exactly this kind of thing? How long has suspend/resume, for instance, been hindered by tossing the expectation that things will "work properly"? How many people might be dealing with hardware bugs, and complaining to Canonical (or their vendor of choice) when things don't wake from sleep when it's actually a crappy (as in, non-standard complaint) BIOS from a motherboard vendor?
Having a minimum required BIOS version is a new one for me, and this even before my first full day with Windows. This is really going to be interesting.
Can a Linux man survive in Windows Land?
My wife is getting a new laptop next week as part of a computer purchasing program at her work. One of the conditions of this program, however, is that the computer must run Microsoft Office which means it must also run Windows.
So, my home is going to be sheltering a Windows Vista laptop, despite my protests. It stirred in me, however, a sense of curiosity. I stopped using Windows back when XP was still pretty new and other than poking at betas, I've not used Windows. Even at work, I can use Linux all day. My hacker desire to poke around at everything has been speaking up, and I've decided to poke at Windows.
But not Vista. Haven't you heard!? Vista sucks.
I'm going to give Windows Server 2008 a spin on my personal computer for the next week or so, full time. From what I understand, the separation of admin and user accounts by default as well as more fine-tuned user privileges management make it more secure than XP or Vista. The minimal setup allows me to reclaim CPU cycles that Vista munches on.
So, in the next week or so, I'll be trying to use my computer and relearn a whole new way of doing things. Just as new Linux users balk at the changes, I'm sure I will, and in the process I hope to learn a little bit more about what I use my computer for, what I depend on and what flexibilities I have.
If anyone has any suggestions for me while I do this, feel free to ask!
So, my home is going to be sheltering a Windows Vista laptop, despite my protests. It stirred in me, however, a sense of curiosity. I stopped using Windows back when XP was still pretty new and other than poking at betas, I've not used Windows. Even at work, I can use Linux all day. My hacker desire to poke around at everything has been speaking up, and I've decided to poke at Windows.
But not Vista. Haven't you heard!? Vista sucks.
I'm going to give Windows Server 2008 a spin on my personal computer for the next week or so, full time. From what I understand, the separation of admin and user accounts by default as well as more fine-tuned user privileges management make it more secure than XP or Vista. The minimal setup allows me to reclaim CPU cycles that Vista munches on.
So, in the next week or so, I'll be trying to use my computer and relearn a whole new way of doing things. Just as new Linux users balk at the changes, I'm sure I will, and in the process I hope to learn a little bit more about what I use my computer for, what I depend on and what flexibilities I have.
If anyone has any suggestions for me while I do this, feel free to ask!
Silence is golden, but it makes readers stop visiting.
I've been very quiet these past few weeks and it's by no accident. I'll try to keep this brief, but with past performance as an indicator, I'll fail horribly. It's okay, expression is good.
My life is about to change in the next year. It's taken the perfect storm of my wife's job becoming less fulfilling, personal development of her self-esteem and confidence and a growing sense of purpose and adventure, but my wife is finally becoming an activist. More than that, she's finally gotten excited about or move to New Hampshire as part of the Free State Project! So excited, actually, that we're now planning to make the move in Spring of 2010.
She's also finding that this suburban, modern young, socially-upward lifestyle we live isn't as fulfilling as she dreamt as a child. Now that she's no longer using her career as the basis of her self-worth, she's questioning the other trappings of her life and has found that a stationary, mobile life doesn't suit her spirit.
We're very seriously considering purchasing an RV (Recreational Vehicle) this year and becoming "fulltimers". I won't go into depth on what this is or what it entails but in essence, we'll be buying a vehicle that we can live in with a good quality of life, lower costs of living and have a sense of freedom that we don't right now, entirely separate from the kind of "freedom from aggression-that-is-government" I usually write here.
Making this shift will take time, money and education. As such, I'm shifting some of my time into making money which means I'm doing less here. In a twisted way, it will all tie in - freedom, liberty, software and the fulltimer lifestyle. As usual, I'll be putting it here, but it will be less frequent, or if frequently, shorter. :) I'm sure my readers won't mind.
My life is about to change in the next year. It's taken the perfect storm of my wife's job becoming less fulfilling, personal development of her self-esteem and confidence and a growing sense of purpose and adventure, but my wife is finally becoming an activist. More than that, she's finally gotten excited about or move to New Hampshire as part of the Free State Project! So excited, actually, that we're now planning to make the move in Spring of 2010.
She's also finding that this suburban, modern young, socially-upward lifestyle we live isn't as fulfilling as she dreamt as a child. Now that she's no longer using her career as the basis of her self-worth, she's questioning the other trappings of her life and has found that a stationary, mobile life doesn't suit her spirit.
We're very seriously considering purchasing an RV (Recreational Vehicle) this year and becoming "fulltimers". I won't go into depth on what this is or what it entails but in essence, we'll be buying a vehicle that we can live in with a good quality of life, lower costs of living and have a sense of freedom that we don't right now, entirely separate from the kind of "freedom from aggression-that-is-government" I usually write here.
Making this shift will take time, money and education. As such, I'm shifting some of my time into making money which means I'm doing less here. In a twisted way, it will all tie in - freedom, liberty, software and the fulltimer lifestyle. As usual, I'll be putting it here, but it will be less frequent, or if frequently, shorter. :) I'm sure my readers won't mind.
What happens when the media doesn't cover it?
I had a strange experience today. I was made aware today of the heinous situation involving Jan Pawel Pietrzak and his wife Quiana. As you can see from the picture below (Credit to nydailynews.com), they were an interracial couple. He was white, she was black. Four active Marines (living at Camp Pendleton, near San Diego) kicked in the door to the Pietrazak home, bound and gagged the couple, cut off Quiana's clothing and proceeded to rape her with "an instrument" before murdering the couple execution-style.
The general chatter on the blogosphere was that this was a race-related killing. While this may or may not be true, the reported evidence is contradictory. Statements from the suspected killers said they "did it for the money" yet other reports indicate that nothing was missing from the home. Furthermore, the police reports seem to suggest that the decision to murder the couple was debated during the whole incident which probably wouldn't enter into the situation if it were simply over money.
This is disgusting in and of itself but what really alarms me is that I thought it was fake. I read the first report of this disgusting crime from a blog called Save Our Daughters which seemed to be lending support for the racial motivations in the crime but in that article was the comment "don't expect this to be on MSNBC or CNN like the other cases". I'm used to not hearing the entire news situation. It didn't make the mainstream media when Posse Comitatus was ended and soldiers were deployed within the United States to calm "domestic unrest", further ramping up the police state. The news media not touching a story because of their delicate (read: "Do what we say or we'll hurt you!") relationship with the government people doesn't surprise me in the least.
But why this case? Is it what some people suggest - that there's a bias towards interracial couples? Is it more what I think - that the government people are trying to control a public relations nightmare by showing killers (Calling it "war" doesn't make a murder any less a murder, like it or not) in the act of killing, where the victims are "good Americans" rather than the demonized "brown people" in the Middle East?
Whatever the reasons, the author (gem2001) was right. This wasn't touched by the mainstream media.
And that is where I had my "strange experience". I input the female victim's name into Google the first time as entered in that article (Quiana Faye Jenkins-Pietrzak) and got mostly blog entries. I then tried a slightly different (Quiana Pietrzak) version and found the San Diego NBC affiliate that covered the story. Unfortunately that was about it in terms of media sources I could trust. Even the second search returned mostly blog articles. It was then I actually found myself doubting the authenticity of the story. Surely the rape, torture and murder of interracial couple (during the Obama campaign, too!) would have made the news! In the back of my mind though, rationality is screaming at me. This is the internet world. I recall reading about Anna Nichole Smith's death before her body started cooling. I've actually used the term "old news" to refer to something I'd read about the day before.
But now I can't shake this weird sense of, despite seeing how deep the rabbit hole actually goes, feeling as if there might be a bunch more. How do you tell what's real and fake anymore, when the news coming through the television and radio is authored just as surely as the current bestseller for fiction is authored. News sites like Digg and Reddit help, but what if the news is something that covers a social taboo too? Digg tends to be composed of mostly liberals - would a government-suppressed news story about gun confiscation rise to the top of Digg?
The solution, then, is to become the media. Nothing else will do. Only when we take fact gathering and checking into our own hands can we be sure that newsworthy information gets out.
The general chatter on the blogosphere was that this was a race-related killing. While this may or may not be true, the reported evidence is contradictory. Statements from the suspected killers said they "did it for the money" yet other reports indicate that nothing was missing from the home. Furthermore, the police reports seem to suggest that the decision to murder the couple was debated during the whole incident which probably wouldn't enter into the situation if it were simply over money.
This is disgusting in and of itself but what really alarms me is that I thought it was fake. I read the first report of this disgusting crime from a blog called Save Our Daughters which seemed to be lending support for the racial motivations in the crime but in that article was the comment "don't expect this to be on MSNBC or CNN like the other cases". I'm used to not hearing the entire news situation. It didn't make the mainstream media when Posse Comitatus was ended and soldiers were deployed within the United States to calm "domestic unrest", further ramping up the police state. The news media not touching a story because of their delicate (read: "Do what we say or we'll hurt you!") relationship with the government people doesn't surprise me in the least.
But why this case? Is it what some people suggest - that there's a bias towards interracial couples? Is it more what I think - that the government people are trying to control a public relations nightmare by showing killers (Calling it "war" doesn't make a murder any less a murder, like it or not) in the act of killing, where the victims are "good Americans" rather than the demonized "brown people" in the Middle East?
Whatever the reasons, the author (gem2001) was right. This wasn't touched by the mainstream media.
And that is where I had my "strange experience". I input the female victim's name into Google the first time as entered in that article (Quiana Faye Jenkins-Pietrzak) and got mostly blog entries. I then tried a slightly different (Quiana Pietrzak) version and found the San Diego NBC affiliate that covered the story. Unfortunately that was about it in terms of media sources I could trust. Even the second search returned mostly blog articles. It was then I actually found myself doubting the authenticity of the story. Surely the rape, torture and murder of interracial couple (during the Obama campaign, too!) would have made the news! In the back of my mind though, rationality is screaming at me. This is the internet world. I recall reading about Anna Nichole Smith's death before her body started cooling. I've actually used the term "old news" to refer to something I'd read about the day before.
But now I can't shake this weird sense of, despite seeing how deep the rabbit hole actually goes, feeling as if there might be a bunch more. How do you tell what's real and fake anymore, when the news coming through the television and radio is authored just as surely as the current bestseller for fiction is authored. News sites like Digg and Reddit help, but what if the news is something that covers a social taboo too? Digg tends to be composed of mostly liberals - would a government-suppressed news story about gun confiscation rise to the top of Digg?
The solution, then, is to become the media. Nothing else will do. Only when we take fact gathering and checking into our own hands can we be sure that newsworthy information gets out.
90 days in prison for refusing to stand
[Author's Note: This article was written about 10 minutes after Ian's arrest. This is due partly to the systems New Hampshire liberty-activists have in place to inform, organize and carry out activism events. Because the news was so fresh, it was a bit inaccurate. The title should be "93 days in prison for refusing to sit". This entry has been edited since it's original, though the original text is now in strikethrough. Thanks everyone who got this news out, Dugg it and cared about it!]
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" says the Declaration of Independence, a document that asserted freedom and triggered a war. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" is a concept taught in American schools as a fundamental truth that all people are deserving of respect and life and prosperity.
Why then is Ian Freeman in prison for the next100 93 days? Because he refused to stand sit for his equal, another man, [when he ordered him to]. He refused to call him 'honor' and this upset the man calling himself "Judge".
Ian Freeman, host of the internationally syndicated radio show Free Talk Live and fellow Free State Project member appeared at court today in Keene, New Hampshire. As the owner of a property in Keene he has been charged with some sort of code violation for his tenants having a couch in the yard they rent from Ian. Several weeks ago a person claiming to be "an official" from "City of Keene" left a piece of paper demanding money and the removal of the couch.
Ian met with the so-called official to ask if any of his neighbors had actually complained about the couch and was told that a female neighbor had filed a complaint. When Ian asked to speak with her, he was told that wouldn't happen.
In the United States of America, there is a very basic right enshrined in the Constitution, the right to confront your accuser. I hold no reverence for this document - it's not anything I agree to or am party to - but supposedly the people calling themselves "government" have agreed to be bound by it.
Ian presented the court officials with a response. He was not against removing the couch - a responsible neighbor takes note of the complaints of his neighbor. He just wanted to talk with the woman who filed the complaint, to find out what offended her about how his property was, and he'd then remove it if it still bothered her. A very adult-like thing to do.
The court refused, and instead initiated a trial.
Today, Ian appeared at their trial and intended only on calling the damaged person making a complaint against him. He never got that far, it seems. In keeping with the doctrine of "all men created equal", Ian Freeman refused tostand for the man called "Judge" sit immediately after ordered to by the man calling himself "Judge". It would be considered rude to refuse a hand extended to you in greeting, yet this man called "Judge" did not greet Ian by standing. It should be noted that usual court decorum involves the person speaking to rise and speak. Instead, he decided that Ian's refusal to stand sit was somehow and offense, and then proceeded to instruct some other men to arrest him. They ushered him off to a separate room for the supposed "trial".
In addition to being able to confront your accuser, in America there's supposedly a right to a public trial. This is so the public can show outrage when the government people become overly aggressive and start hurting people. As is so common in New Hampshire, Ian did in fact have public support. Several liberty activists attended the government people's trial over this matter. Ian mentioned yesterday [MP3] that those attendees are a huge source of motivation and strength when confronting the aggressive government people, and today they made a very clear move to separate the public from the court railroading that would follow.
In this private back room, the man called "Judge" convicted Ian of three counts of "contempt of court" (why shouldn't an ethical person be contemptuous of men using violence and threats to tell other men what they're allowed to store their property?) and sentenced him to 90 days in prison with fines with an additional 10 days in the cage for refusal to give the government people some of his money.
Welcome to the United Socialist States of America. The government people own your property. They dictate to you what you can do on your own land. You no longer have to hurt someone to have the government people turn against and hurt you. You have no right to confront your accuser. There no longer need even be an accuser, no injured party. You have no right to a public trial. "We will use force against you" the government people are saying "if you don't obey us."
Indeed, it wasn't even "obeying" they reacted to. No, the aggression they commit was triggered by what they perceive as an insult or as the man calling himself "Judge" said for "making a mockery of this proceeding".
[For the latest news on this situation, including video of Ian's arrest and the buzz this is generating, check out http://93days.com/]
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" says the Declaration of Independence, a document that asserted freedom and triggered a war. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" is a concept taught in American schools as a fundamental truth that all people are deserving of respect and life and prosperity.
Why then is Ian Freeman in prison for the next
Ian Freeman, host of the internationally syndicated radio show Free Talk Live and fellow Free State Project member appeared at court today in Keene, New Hampshire. As the owner of a property in Keene he has been charged with some sort of code violation for his tenants having a couch in the yard they rent from Ian. Several weeks ago a person claiming to be "an official" from "City of Keene" left a piece of paper demanding money and the removal of the couch.
Ian met with the so-called official to ask if any of his neighbors had actually complained about the couch and was told that a female neighbor had filed a complaint. When Ian asked to speak with her, he was told that wouldn't happen.
In the United States of America, there is a very basic right enshrined in the Constitution, the right to confront your accuser. I hold no reverence for this document - it's not anything I agree to or am party to - but supposedly the people calling themselves "government" have agreed to be bound by it.
Ian presented the court officials with a response. He was not against removing the couch - a responsible neighbor takes note of the complaints of his neighbor. He just wanted to talk with the woman who filed the complaint, to find out what offended her about how his property was, and he'd then remove it if it still bothered her. A very adult-like thing to do.
The court refused, and instead initiated a trial.
Today, Ian appeared at their trial and intended only on calling the damaged person making a complaint against him. He never got that far, it seems. In keeping with the doctrine of "all men created equal", Ian Freeman refused to
In addition to being able to confront your accuser, in America there's supposedly a right to a public trial. This is so the public can show outrage when the government people become overly aggressive and start hurting people. As is so common in New Hampshire, Ian did in fact have public support. Several liberty activists attended the government people's trial over this matter. Ian mentioned yesterday [MP3] that those attendees are a huge source of motivation and strength when confronting the aggressive government people, and today they made a very clear move to separate the public from the court railroading that would follow.
In this private back room, the man called "Judge" convicted Ian of three counts of "contempt of court" (why shouldn't an ethical person be contemptuous of men using violence and threats to tell other men what they're allowed to store their property?) and sentenced him to 90 days in prison with fines with an additional 10 days in the cage for refusal to give the government people some of his money.
Welcome to the United Socialist States of America. The government people own your property. They dictate to you what you can do on your own land. You no longer have to hurt someone to have the government people turn against and hurt you. You have no right to confront your accuser. There no longer need even be an accuser, no injured party. You have no right to a public trial. "We will use force against you" the government people are saying "if you don't obey us."
Indeed, it wasn't even "obeying" they reacted to. No, the aggression they commit was triggered by what they perceive as an insult or as the man calling himself "Judge" said for "making a mockery of this proceeding".
[For the latest news on this situation, including video of Ian's arrest and the buzz this is generating, check out http://93days.com/]
Intrepid From The Ground Up with LVM, JFS and Windows Dual Boot
A friend of mine, a fellow voluntaryist and Linux users, has a problem.
He's a bit "old school" and is still in the "primary partition" mindset. For reasons he's not entirely certain of, other than he's told there is some advantage to it, he installs his systems onto his drives in four partitions. One, a Windows XP partition. The other a Linux /. A swap partition is in there followed by a /home partition.
The problem with this scheme can be told by anyone who's used it long enough, as I have. Partitions are small. Unused space on / is useless when /home is full or vice versa.
Luckily, my friend used this time to also begin complaining about his existing install of Arch Linux which has otherwise been working well for him. In fact, it's worked SO well that he managed to stay on it for several months which is amusing since he's the butt of a running joke about breaking every system he touches. The solution to the problem in his case was to finally buy the bigger SATA drive he's been desiring. This still leaves open the idea of how to migrate the data, the proper partitioning scheme and the like. The idea then, was for a friend and I to share our "wisdom" with him and convince him to use LVM and not fuss with Arch.
I know why my friend uses Arch, it's a good distro in many regards. I also know why he avoids Ubuntu. He doesn't have the experience to make his install of Ubuntu work for him, so he uses what works best for him by default. This is where I come in today, to help him out since I'm thrilled with my Ubuntu installs. My method is a bit different than most though, since I use the net install and build up.
Yesterday, as a challenge to myself and as a tutorial for him, I decided to setup a system for him, even mimicking how he'd be able to transfer his existing data onto a new minimal Intrepid system on LVM. To add to the fun, this system would also feature a clean install of Windows XP since, after all, he manages to break every system he touches and XP wasn't working right either. :P
Let me describe the drives first. He's got a 60GB drive in his system now and the new drive is a 640GB one. The tutorial will assume that (during the Windows install) the only drive in the computer is the new, blank 640GB drive. Once XP and Ubuntu are installed, he'll then install the second drive (the 60GB one). In KVM, installing drives takes about three seconds and I recognize in the real world it's a little harder. This process should work just fine with both drives installed, but for simplicity sake I didn't do it that way.
The first order of business is to install Windows XP onto the new, clean drive.
Create a new partition for C: of whatever size you want for the Windows install. In this example, I gave it about half of the small disk. As long as Windows fits on the partition, the size doesn't matter. I've left the remaining space unpartitioned and will leave that for the Ubuntu installer. I then proceed to put an NTFS filesystem on C: using the Quick format option. It then copies over files, reboots and then shows me the flying Windows logo of death. At this point, I know Windows boots up and since I'm not interested in having a working Windows install personally, I end the Windows meddling here with one brief exception to be touched on later. I then put in the Intrepid mini.ISO image and reboot.
Once the CD loads, enter "cli" on the line and press enter to begin the minimal install. At this point, I am assuming that a reader has some level of experience using Debian's installer, which is what the mini.ISO image is. It's not an X-based GUI but it's very easy to navigate. Left and right navigate menu options, tab jumps to the options below the menu or text input. The space key toggled "buttons" like drive selections seen later.
I walk through the install, picking my language (US English) and my keyboard layout (US) by pressing p-y-w and then enter 17 times. One caveat for American users. One of the questions the Ubuntu installer asks during the keyboard selection is "Do you have a" some character "key"? The answer is "No" 16 times if you want a standard keyboard layout, but one of the characters it shows is a double-quotation mark which a US keyboard DOES have, yet answering YES here defaults to a layout that most Americans aren't going to want.
The installer continues, detecting my networking settings automagically (because this version is KVM and because most networks are DHCP capable) and asks me to put in a hostname. A bit of explanation here.
Firstly, what the hell is a "fuggles"? You might ask?
Fuggles is a variety of hops, one of the main ingredients of beer. Other than advocating liberty, hacking on computers and embedded devices, I like brewing my own beer. All of my current systems are named after hop varieties (Saaz is my file server, and my wife's Linux Mint system is Cascade). So in this instance, the hostname is "fuggles". It's not some magical mystical Linux voodoo. Feel free to substitute "fuggle" for anything you want through this tutorial, since I use it later.
Continue with the installer a bit more and eventually you'll come to the partitioner. Since we're going to be doing things a bit better, none of the default options are suitable for our purposes. Go down and choose "manual".
You'll see the partition scheme that we created with Windows. Arrow down to the free space, press enter and choose to create a new partition and asked to size it. This is going to be the /boot partition. In this example, I picked 300MB for /boot which is enough for several smaller, customized kernels or two or three versions of fatter Ubuntu kernels. Most people don't bounce between kernels, and if they do, they already know how much space they'll need. ;)
The screen above asks you to select some options. The option that needs to be changed here is the mount point (highlighted). This is our /boot partition so we want to mount it to /boot. The filesystem type doesn't need to be changed. The reason we create a /boot partition itself is because GRUB doesn't support booting from JFS by default, so we need an Ext2/3 filesystem it can read and boot. Once in Linux, the JFS filesystem we'll create later mounts and boots without issues. Once you've set your mount point on this partition to /boot, arrow down to "Done setting up this partition.
Our /boot partition is done, and we're now shown our revised partitioning scheme. Arrow down again, selecting the FREE SPACE and press enter. We're going to want to create a primary partition here, using all of the remaining space. You'll be shown the options screen again.
Select the "Use as" option and press enter. You'll be given a list of options. Select "Physical volume for LVM" and press enter.
You'll be shown the options screen again, chose "Done setting up this partition".
You will be returned to the partitioner overview, which will show that you now have used all of the free space on your drive. You've got a Windows partition, a /boot and an LVM volume. You'll also see that a NEW option has appeared, "Configure the Logical Volume Manager". Select that and press enter
You'll be shown that you have one physical volume available (the LVM partition you just created). You'll also have an option to "Create volume group". Select that and press enter.
You will be asked to name the volume group. For simplicity sake, I use the hostname for my volume group. Below, you'll see "Fuggle". Again, this isn't voodoo and your volume group name doesn't have to match your hostname. Fedora (for instance) uses numeric Vol006545 strings which look intimidating - hostnames look nicer.
You'll be asked to select which physical volumes belong to this group. If you partitioning scheme is the same or similar, you'll see only the one available partition. Select that and continue.
You'll be returned to the Logical Volume manager, which will now show you have no available physical volumes, and show that you DO have a volume group. Is this terminology getting confusing yet?
Put very simply, hardware was once limited to 4 partitions per drive. Sometime along there, software hackers found a way to turn a single partition into MANY smaller partitions. This lets you make "chunks" of your drive without breaking the 4 partition hardware limit. Linux sees one drive with 4 partitions as 4 drives, each can be mounted. LVM lets Linux break a SINGLE "partition" into smaller partitions. The BSDs have done this for a while, and they call them "slices". It's the same concept. Let's create a logical volume or two and then we can discuss how logical volumes and volume groups relate.
Go ahead and click "Create logical volume". You'll be given only one option if you've followed this to the letter. Your option will be the name of whatever volume group you just created. Select that and press enter.
Logical volumes are functionally "partitions". What we're going to do right now is create a swap volume that works exactly the same way as a swap partition does, but has the flexibility afforded by LVM. Go ahead and call this volume "swap" and press enter. If you're asked to pick a size for the volume, give whatever level of swap you might want. There are several opinions on how much swap should be used depending on who you ask. I personally have 12GB of swap on my home computer which I know is complete overkill but I don't care. I never use ANY swap when I work since I tend to keep my system (with 4GB of RAM) under 1GB of memory use. If you're using all of your memory, swap becomes more important for you. Another things to consider is that suspend might use swap space. I'll leave that up to you, but my general suggestion is to use 2X RAM but it's not important enough for me to care much either way. The beauty of LVM is that you CAN resize this later if it's too much or too little.
Once you've created the swap volume, you'll be returned to the Logical Volume Manager. Here, you'll want to create another logical volume and call it root. Give this volume all of the remaining space.
Once you finish, you'll be asked to confirm your volume changes and it will look similar to this.
Confirming this will take you out of the Logical Volume Manager and you'll see your new logical volumes as part of the overall partition scheme, alongside your /boot and Windows partitions.
Move up to the volume titled swap and select it. You'll be taken to the options screen as if it were a regular partition (and for all intents now, it IS). Click the "Use as" option, select "swap space" and select the "Done setting up the partition" option.
Move up to the section titled root and press enter.
This is where the magic happens. :) In this options screen, there are two things to change and set. First, move up to the "Use as" section and change it to JFS. Secondly, change the "Mount point" option to /. You can select "Done setting up the partition" once you've done that.
Why are we using JFS? Firstly, JFS provides better disk performance in my experience. There are also benchmarks to suggest this. It isn't a blanket statement though. JFS isn't better in every arena, but it has been in mine. JFS excels with larger files such as movies or virtualized disks in KVM or VirtualBox. Additionally, JFS's journal is faster which results in less time in restoring after a corruption. There are no long waits where the ext3 filesystem forces a fsck. JFS checks the journal quickly (a second, perhaps two) and is done. Another very real benefit is partitioning time. As drives get bigger and bigger, it takes longer and longer to partition them using ext3. Partitioning a single, 1TB drive takes several minutes which isn't horrible but it's super slow compared to JFS. JFS formats a 1TB in about a second. In fact, it might be faster than that, the "Formatting partition" screen vanishes literally as fast as it appears, and it might actually be that message which takes longer than the partitioning. If you're still skeptical, try it out.
And for the most important question - Yes. It's stable. Damn stable. I've never had a JFS volume fail simply because it was JFS. In fact, only the ResierFS has done that on me though I hear XFS is sometimes as bad. For stability, I'd rank ext3 and JFS side by side for "top notch".
You'll see all your partitioning work in it's glory. If it's correct, forge ahead with "Finish partitioning and write changes to disk". Continue with the installer, everything else is "standard" from here on out.
At the GRUB stage, the Windows install was automagically detected. :)
Ubuntu and Windows both appear on the GRUB menu, and both are tested and working.
Boot into Ubuntu and login. Here, you'll begin installing software for your Ubuntu system. Everyone has their own choices at this point. Perhaps you'd rather use KDE or build Enlightenment. I personally prefer a minimal Gnome install, so I'll install the following packages with apt-get. Additionally, I installed GDM for a graphical greeter and usplash to make my bootup less ugly.
The first load of my Ubuntu system tosses an error. It seems, by default, some applet is installed on the Gnome panel that wasn't on the system. Pick "delete" here will remove that applet from the panel's settings and prevent this error in the future. It'll nag you eternally otherwise.
I should also note that the graphical distortions on the gnome panel are unique to KVM. These don't happen on any "real" system I've ever installed Intrepid on. I'm not sure if it's a host-side or a guest-side bug, but it's isolated to virtual machines.
At this point, I added the second drive, the older and smaller one that contains data. I ask you to suspend reason here just a LITTLE bit. The image shows a mounted /boot partition from the second drive. You'd be mounting (most likely) a /home partition instead of a boot partition but the process is the same.
Once you're in your Ubuntu system and you've got your old drive installed, mount it anywhere you want and copy the data from that drive to your new system. Get EVERYTHING you want to keep. Once your data is safely copied, unmount the old drive. In order to add that drive to the LVM system in the "simplest" way, you'll have to clear the partitions which will eliminate any data on it. Use whichever tools you like best. fdisk is a command line application, installed on the Ubuntu system by default. Some people prefer GUIs though, and as this is YOUR system, you make that call. :) An empty partition table is the simplest method in my opinion.
The image above shows the Gnome Disk Usage Analyzer. My / partition has 14GB as could be expected. The other, older drive has been unpartitioned and is installed in the PC.
The command "sudo pvcreate /dev/sdb" takes the unpartitioned second drive and prepares it for use in a LVM volume group. The second command, vgextend, adds that available space to the volume group. In this example, it's the "fuggles" volume group which contains my swap and / volumes.
When run with sudo, vgdisplay will tell you information about your volume groups. The important thing to see there is "Free PE / Size" which will list the space you have "in the pool" but not added to any filesystem. To add the available space to a filesystem, you issue the following command, adjusted to use the numbers displayed from you vgdisplay.
sudo lvextend -L+4095 /dev/mapper/fuggles-root
This command can also take various modifiers, like "lvextend -L+10G" to expand it by 10G. The second argument, /dev/mapper/fuggles-root, identifies the volume you want to add the space too. Because of the naming system that was setup, it's pretty easy to identify which volume does what. /dev/mapper/fuggles-swap would similarly expand your swap space.
There's only more step to go before you go on hacking your systems to your heart's content. That is to actually expand the filesystem to map this new space. On ext3, this process would be slightly more annoying because it would usually force an fsck on the next reboot. Luckily, JFS is better in this regard.
Issue the command "sudo mount -o remount,resize /"to extend the JFS filesystem to the new storage and you're done.
Gnome Disk Analyzer now reports more storage area on the same filesystem. You can now expand your storage or dynamically re-assign your existing storage as your needs and hardware change.
He's a bit "old school" and is still in the "primary partition" mindset. For reasons he's not entirely certain of, other than he's told there is some advantage to it, he installs his systems onto his drives in four partitions. One, a Windows XP partition. The other a Linux /. A swap partition is in there followed by a /home partition.
The problem with this scheme can be told by anyone who's used it long enough, as I have. Partitions are small. Unused space on / is useless when /home is full or vice versa.
Luckily, my friend used this time to also begin complaining about his existing install of Arch Linux which has otherwise been working well for him. In fact, it's worked SO well that he managed to stay on it for several months which is amusing since he's the butt of a running joke about breaking every system he touches. The solution to the problem in his case was to finally buy the bigger SATA drive he's been desiring. This still leaves open the idea of how to migrate the data, the proper partitioning scheme and the like. The idea then, was for a friend and I to share our "wisdom" with him and convince him to use LVM and not fuss with Arch.
I know why my friend uses Arch, it's a good distro in many regards. I also know why he avoids Ubuntu. He doesn't have the experience to make his install of Ubuntu work for him, so he uses what works best for him by default. This is where I come in today, to help him out since I'm thrilled with my Ubuntu installs. My method is a bit different than most though, since I use the net install and build up.
Yesterday, as a challenge to myself and as a tutorial for him, I decided to setup a system for him, even mimicking how he'd be able to transfer his existing data onto a new minimal Intrepid system on LVM. To add to the fun, this system would also feature a clean install of Windows XP since, after all, he manages to break every system he touches and XP wasn't working right either. :P
Let me describe the drives first. He's got a 60GB drive in his system now and the new drive is a 640GB one. The tutorial will assume that (during the Windows install) the only drive in the computer is the new, blank 640GB drive. Once XP and Ubuntu are installed, he'll then install the second drive (the 60GB one). In KVM, installing drives takes about three seconds and I recognize in the real world it's a little harder. This process should work just fine with both drives installed, but for simplicity sake I didn't do it that way.
The first order of business is to install Windows XP onto the new, clean drive.
Create a new partition for C: of whatever size you want for the Windows install. In this example, I gave it about half of the small disk. As long as Windows fits on the partition, the size doesn't matter. I've left the remaining space unpartitioned and will leave that for the Ubuntu installer. I then proceed to put an NTFS filesystem on C: using the Quick format option. It then copies over files, reboots and then shows me the flying Windows logo of death. At this point, I know Windows boots up and since I'm not interested in having a working Windows install personally, I end the Windows meddling here with one brief exception to be touched on later. I then put in the Intrepid mini.ISO image and reboot.
Once the CD loads, enter "cli" on the line and press enter to begin the minimal install. At this point, I am assuming that a reader has some level of experience using Debian's installer, which is what the mini.ISO image is. It's not an X-based GUI but it's very easy to navigate. Left and right navigate menu options, tab jumps to the options below the menu or text input. The space key toggled "buttons" like drive selections seen later.
I walk through the install, picking my language (US English) and my keyboard layout (US) by pressing p-y-w and then enter 17 times. One caveat for American users. One of the questions the Ubuntu installer asks during the keyboard selection is "Do you have a" some character "key"? The answer is "No" 16 times if you want a standard keyboard layout, but one of the characters it shows is a double-quotation mark which a US keyboard DOES have, yet answering YES here defaults to a layout that most Americans aren't going to want.
The installer continues, detecting my networking settings automagically (because this version is KVM and because most networks are DHCP capable) and asks me to put in a hostname. A bit of explanation here.
Firstly, what the hell is a "fuggles"? You might ask?
Fuggles is a variety of hops, one of the main ingredients of beer. Other than advocating liberty, hacking on computers and embedded devices, I like brewing my own beer. All of my current systems are named after hop varieties (Saaz is my file server, and my wife's Linux Mint system is Cascade). So in this instance, the hostname is "fuggles". It's not some magical mystical Linux voodoo. Feel free to substitute "fuggle" for anything you want through this tutorial, since I use it later.
Continue with the installer a bit more and eventually you'll come to the partitioner. Since we're going to be doing things a bit better, none of the default options are suitable for our purposes. Go down and choose "manual".
You'll see the partition scheme that we created with Windows. Arrow down to the free space, press enter and choose to create a new partition and asked to size it. This is going to be the /boot partition. In this example, I picked 300MB for /boot which is enough for several smaller, customized kernels or two or three versions of fatter Ubuntu kernels. Most people don't bounce between kernels, and if they do, they already know how much space they'll need. ;)
The screen above asks you to select some options. The option that needs to be changed here is the mount point (highlighted). This is our /boot partition so we want to mount it to /boot. The filesystem type doesn't need to be changed. The reason we create a /boot partition itself is because GRUB doesn't support booting from JFS by default, so we need an Ext2/3 filesystem it can read and boot. Once in Linux, the JFS filesystem we'll create later mounts and boots without issues. Once you've set your mount point on this partition to /boot, arrow down to "Done setting up this partition.
Our /boot partition is done, and we're now shown our revised partitioning scheme. Arrow down again, selecting the FREE SPACE and press enter. We're going to want to create a primary partition here, using all of the remaining space. You'll be shown the options screen again.
Select the "Use as" option and press enter. You'll be given a list of options. Select "Physical volume for LVM" and press enter.
You'll be shown the options screen again, chose "Done setting up this partition".
You will be returned to the partitioner overview, which will show that you now have used all of the free space on your drive. You've got a Windows partition, a /boot and an LVM volume. You'll also see that a NEW option has appeared, "Configure the Logical Volume Manager". Select that and press enter
You'll be shown that you have one physical volume available (the LVM partition you just created). You'll also have an option to "Create volume group". Select that and press enter.
You will be asked to name the volume group. For simplicity sake, I use the hostname for my volume group. Below, you'll see "Fuggle". Again, this isn't voodoo and your volume group name doesn't have to match your hostname. Fedora (for instance) uses numeric Vol006545 strings which look intimidating - hostnames look nicer.
You'll be asked to select which physical volumes belong to this group. If you partitioning scheme is the same or similar, you'll see only the one available partition. Select that and continue.
You'll be returned to the Logical Volume manager, which will now show you have no available physical volumes, and show that you DO have a volume group. Is this terminology getting confusing yet?
Put very simply, hardware was once limited to 4 partitions per drive. Sometime along there, software hackers found a way to turn a single partition into MANY smaller partitions. This lets you make "chunks" of your drive without breaking the 4 partition hardware limit. Linux sees one drive with 4 partitions as 4 drives, each can be mounted. LVM lets Linux break a SINGLE "partition" into smaller partitions. The BSDs have done this for a while, and they call them "slices". It's the same concept. Let's create a logical volume or two and then we can discuss how logical volumes and volume groups relate.
Go ahead and click "Create logical volume". You'll be given only one option if you've followed this to the letter. Your option will be the name of whatever volume group you just created. Select that and press enter.
Logical volumes are functionally "partitions". What we're going to do right now is create a swap volume that works exactly the same way as a swap partition does, but has the flexibility afforded by LVM. Go ahead and call this volume "swap" and press enter. If you're asked to pick a size for the volume, give whatever level of swap you might want. There are several opinions on how much swap should be used depending on who you ask. I personally have 12GB of swap on my home computer which I know is complete overkill but I don't care. I never use ANY swap when I work since I tend to keep my system (with 4GB of RAM) under 1GB of memory use. If you're using all of your memory, swap becomes more important for you. Another things to consider is that suspend might use swap space. I'll leave that up to you, but my general suggestion is to use 2X RAM but it's not important enough for me to care much either way. The beauty of LVM is that you CAN resize this later if it's too much or too little.
Once you've created the swap volume, you'll be returned to the Logical Volume Manager. Here, you'll want to create another logical volume and call it root. Give this volume all of the remaining space.
Once you finish, you'll be asked to confirm your volume changes and it will look similar to this.
Confirming this will take you out of the Logical Volume Manager and you'll see your new logical volumes as part of the overall partition scheme, alongside your /boot and Windows partitions.
Move up to the volume titled swap and select it. You'll be taken to the options screen as if it were a regular partition (and for all intents now, it IS). Click the "Use as" option, select "swap space" and select the "Done setting up the partition" option.
Move up to the section titled root and press enter.
This is where the magic happens. :) In this options screen, there are two things to change and set. First, move up to the "Use as" section and change it to JFS. Secondly, change the "Mount point" option to /. You can select "Done setting up the partition" once you've done that.
Why are we using JFS? Firstly, JFS provides better disk performance in my experience. There are also benchmarks to suggest this. It isn't a blanket statement though. JFS isn't better in every arena, but it has been in mine. JFS excels with larger files such as movies or virtualized disks in KVM or VirtualBox. Additionally, JFS's journal is faster which results in less time in restoring after a corruption. There are no long waits where the ext3 filesystem forces a fsck. JFS checks the journal quickly (a second, perhaps two) and is done. Another very real benefit is partitioning time. As drives get bigger and bigger, it takes longer and longer to partition them using ext3. Partitioning a single, 1TB drive takes several minutes which isn't horrible but it's super slow compared to JFS. JFS formats a 1TB in about a second. In fact, it might be faster than that, the "Formatting partition" screen vanishes literally as fast as it appears, and it might actually be that message which takes longer than the partitioning. If you're still skeptical, try it out.
And for the most important question - Yes. It's stable. Damn stable. I've never had a JFS volume fail simply because it was JFS. In fact, only the ResierFS has done that on me though I hear XFS is sometimes as bad. For stability, I'd rank ext3 and JFS side by side for "top notch".
You'll see all your partitioning work in it's glory. If it's correct, forge ahead with "Finish partitioning and write changes to disk". Continue with the installer, everything else is "standard" from here on out.
At the GRUB stage, the Windows install was automagically detected. :)
Ubuntu and Windows both appear on the GRUB menu, and both are tested and working.
Boot into Ubuntu and login. Here, you'll begin installing software for your Ubuntu system. Everyone has their own choices at this point. Perhaps you'd rather use KDE or build Enlightenment. I personally prefer a minimal Gnome install, so I'll install the following packages with apt-get. Additionally, I installed GDM for a graphical greeter and usplash to make my bootup less ugly.
The first load of my Ubuntu system tosses an error. It seems, by default, some applet is installed on the Gnome panel that wasn't on the system. Pick "delete" here will remove that applet from the panel's settings and prevent this error in the future. It'll nag you eternally otherwise.
I should also note that the graphical distortions on the gnome panel are unique to KVM. These don't happen on any "real" system I've ever installed Intrepid on. I'm not sure if it's a host-side or a guest-side bug, but it's isolated to virtual machines.
At this point, I added the second drive, the older and smaller one that contains data. I ask you to suspend reason here just a LITTLE bit. The image shows a mounted /boot partition from the second drive. You'd be mounting (most likely) a /home partition instead of a boot partition but the process is the same.
Once you're in your Ubuntu system and you've got your old drive installed, mount it anywhere you want and copy the data from that drive to your new system. Get EVERYTHING you want to keep. Once your data is safely copied, unmount the old drive. In order to add that drive to the LVM system in the "simplest" way, you'll have to clear the partitions which will eliminate any data on it. Use whichever tools you like best. fdisk is a command line application, installed on the Ubuntu system by default. Some people prefer GUIs though, and as this is YOUR system, you make that call. :) An empty partition table is the simplest method in my opinion.
The image above shows the Gnome Disk Usage Analyzer. My / partition has 14GB as could be expected. The other, older drive has been unpartitioned and is installed in the PC.
The command "sudo pvcreate /dev/sdb" takes the unpartitioned second drive and prepares it for use in a LVM volume group. The second command, vgextend, adds that available space to the volume group. In this example, it's the "fuggles" volume group which contains my swap and / volumes.
When run with sudo, vgdisplay will tell you information about your volume groups. The important thing to see there is "Free PE / Size" which will list the space you have "in the pool" but not added to any filesystem. To add the available space to a filesystem, you issue the following command, adjusted to use the numbers displayed from you vgdisplay.
sudo lvextend -L+4095 /dev/mapper/fuggles-root
This command can also take various modifiers, like "lvextend -L+10G" to expand it by 10G. The second argument, /dev/mapper/fuggles-root, identifies the volume you want to add the space too. Because of the naming system that was setup, it's pretty easy to identify which volume does what. /dev/mapper/fuggles-swap would similarly expand your swap space.
There's only more step to go before you go on hacking your systems to your heart's content. That is to actually expand the filesystem to map this new space. On ext3, this process would be slightly more annoying because it would usually force an fsck on the next reboot. Luckily, JFS is better in this regard.
Issue the command "sudo mount -o remount,resize /"to extend the JFS filesystem to the new storage and you're done.
Gnome Disk Analyzer now reports more storage area on the same filesystem. You can now expand your storage or dynamically re-assign your existing storage as your needs and hardware change.
Obamanation: Where do we go from here?
Barack Obama has been picked as the next President of the United States.
I'm neutral on this. If it wasn't spend-steal-and-kill Obama, it would have been spend-kill and steal McCain. Either way you slice it, the people of America (and indeed, all of the people around the world using the US Dollar in trade) will get an anal reaming. So while I'm personally upset over Obama's win, I know if McCain won, I'd be just as pissed.
Which brings me to my point. Were there any good choices here? John McCain is a fascist, advocating for the incestuous mix of business and government. Barack Obama is a socialist, intent on robbing wealth producing people and their children to "spread the wealth around". Even the third party candidates sucked. Bob Barr stood for the Libertarian Party but didn't have the non-aggression principle at the core of his message, sending confusion and uncertainty about what liberty stands for. Chuck Baldwin wants to impose a theocratic state upon people at the point of a gun if needed (as all of the candidates do, believing as they do in the ability for the government people to "solve problems"). Nader's primary focuses are on getting the government to regulate (which is a newspeak term for "hurt people if they don't do what I say") industry, tax more and further entrench government into the personal lives of people.
So, with a proverbial crap buffet, what are the options?
Firstly, there's the Free State Project. It's a movement of 20,000 liberty-loving activists to one place (New Hampshire) to get active for liberty and smaller, less intrusive government. My wife and I are both Free State Project participants planning on a permanent move to New Hampshire for this very reason. There's all kinds of activism happening. This election cycle saw 154 pro-liberty Granite Staters endorsed by the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance, an organization dedicated to pro-liberty voting and legislation. New Hampshire is the pro-liberty media capital of the world with Free Talk Live, Free Minds TV/Radio, Anarchy In Your Head, The Ridley Report, The Liberty Conspiracy and a vocal and growing pro-liberty population getting active in other media avenues. Activists in Keene and other places are engaging in civil disobedience while protesting taxes, government driver licensing, occupational regulation and the kangaroo court system.
Secondly, there is state-level secession. It's an avenue that very few people think about, and most don't want to. There's a bit historical fabrication taught in government schools, that secession causes wars. America's birth was out of secession. History uses the term "Revolution" but it wasn't. Specifically, a revolution is an overturning of an existing government, replacing it with a new. Secession is the disolvement of political connections between political organizations which is what the American colonists did with regard to the British Empire. Some will balk at the idea that secession causes wars, and point at the American Civil War yet those people show a distinct lack of history. It was the Confederate States of America firing upon Fort Sumner which officially sparked the War, not the secession of the various states. With the number of states today with conservative leaning populations and the country ruled by "the most liberal senator" and a liberal legislature, those people will steadily see the need for secession. Let it be put on the table as an option. Let it be talked about and considered.
Thirdly, there's what's being dubbed "personal secession". For those like myself of the voluntaryist persuasion, the very idea of government is repulsive. Our positions emphasize individualism and rejects deceptive collectivist concepts like "the greater good" (as if anybody could actually measure that). Likewise, voluntaryists reject nationalism - human beings matter, the nation that claims them does not. Nationalism is the root of callousness. Doubt it? Watch American news sometimes and notice how they'll almost always comment (say, after a plane crash) at the number of dead "plus four Americans" as if those 4 families are somehow more important than the other sons and daughters, husbands and wives. Likewise, it's contrary to the voluntaryist philosophy to advocate that people form a state and break away from a nation - we reject both concepts. What we recognize is contracts and consent. Since I was not a signer to the United States Constitution, and have sworn no oath to be bound by it, what does it matter to me except for words on paper? I did not agree to follow laws, so what force do they have over me other than the men with guns willing to hurt me for not doing so? My parents, not I, enrolled in Social Security so how and I bound to pay it? I am not. I am NOT. I AM NOT.
Personal secession is about standing on principle. I am against the murder of people, so I do not like war. Yet I still pay taxes which fund that war. I do not like the police aggression against non-violent drug users, yet I pay taxes to the state that is used to lock them in cages. These things sit uneasily with me. My option is to simply stop. Stop following the government people's orders. Stop paying for their murder engine and their indoctrination camps for children. Stop following their laws. In short, I'll simply live free.
Today, I am afraid of that. Those thugs with guns don't like people "stepping out of line" and they'll hurt me. But this won't be the case in New Hampshire! Already dozens upon dozens of liberty activists are refusing to cooperate. For now it's simple things, like filling a courtroom with pro-liberty supporters when someone is charged with a victimless crime and simply refusing to stand for the judge. We're all created equal right? If he's not standing for you, why would an equal stand for him? My fear falls away when activists like Lauren Canario and Kat Kanning stand on principle. My fear falls away when I think about the liberty potential of any area with thousands of liberty activists on the ground, mobilizing for freedom. The government thugs use violence against people I love today because of the Drug War. How might liberty activists clog that system if everyone charged with a simple drug possession "offense" merely took the damn case to trial? This is personal secession - living free. Simply that, living free.
If an oasis of liberty sprang up, would you visit it? If 20,000 liberty-loving activists moved to New Hampshire today, would you too move for more freedom? If you answered yes, please join the Free State Project. You're not committing to move today, next week or next year. What you're saying is IF 20,000 liberty-loving people made the move, you'd move too within 5 years. Do you like the idea, but think that moving is impossible or not the best way to achieve liberty? Consider signing up as a Friend of the Free State Project like Ron Paul. A friend of mine from Europe has come to see that liberty isn't growing where he's living. With the European Union a growing source of discontent he's decided to reach out to liberty-lovers outside of the US with Free Staters International. He himself is a signed member of the Free State Project so it's not "just" an "American thing".
Standing alone is scary. Standing with others is empowering, breeds a cycle of confidence boosting and standing in turn. I'll stand in New Hampshire. Will you stand with me?
I'm neutral on this. If it wasn't spend-steal-and-kill Obama, it would have been spend-kill and steal McCain. Either way you slice it, the people of America (and indeed, all of the people around the world using the US Dollar in trade) will get an anal reaming. So while I'm personally upset over Obama's win, I know if McCain won, I'd be just as pissed.
Which brings me to my point. Were there any good choices here? John McCain is a fascist, advocating for the incestuous mix of business and government. Barack Obama is a socialist, intent on robbing wealth producing people and their children to "spread the wealth around". Even the third party candidates sucked. Bob Barr stood for the Libertarian Party but didn't have the non-aggression principle at the core of his message, sending confusion and uncertainty about what liberty stands for. Chuck Baldwin wants to impose a theocratic state upon people at the point of a gun if needed (as all of the candidates do, believing as they do in the ability for the government people to "solve problems"). Nader's primary focuses are on getting the government to regulate (which is a newspeak term for "hurt people if they don't do what I say") industry, tax more and further entrench government into the personal lives of people.
So, with a proverbial crap buffet, what are the options?
Firstly, there's the Free State Project. It's a movement of 20,000 liberty-loving activists to one place (New Hampshire) to get active for liberty and smaller, less intrusive government. My wife and I are both Free State Project participants planning on a permanent move to New Hampshire for this very reason. There's all kinds of activism happening. This election cycle saw 154 pro-liberty Granite Staters endorsed by the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance, an organization dedicated to pro-liberty voting and legislation. New Hampshire is the pro-liberty media capital of the world with Free Talk Live, Free Minds TV/Radio, Anarchy In Your Head, The Ridley Report, The Liberty Conspiracy and a vocal and growing pro-liberty population getting active in other media avenues. Activists in Keene and other places are engaging in civil disobedience while protesting taxes, government driver licensing, occupational regulation and the kangaroo court system.
Secondly, there is state-level secession. It's an avenue that very few people think about, and most don't want to. There's a bit historical fabrication taught in government schools, that secession causes wars. America's birth was out of secession. History uses the term "Revolution" but it wasn't. Specifically, a revolution is an overturning of an existing government, replacing it with a new. Secession is the disolvement of political connections between political organizations which is what the American colonists did with regard to the British Empire. Some will balk at the idea that secession causes wars, and point at the American Civil War yet those people show a distinct lack of history. It was the Confederate States of America firing upon Fort Sumner which officially sparked the War, not the secession of the various states. With the number of states today with conservative leaning populations and the country ruled by "the most liberal senator" and a liberal legislature, those people will steadily see the need for secession. Let it be put on the table as an option. Let it be talked about and considered.
Thirdly, there's what's being dubbed "personal secession". For those like myself of the voluntaryist persuasion, the very idea of government is repulsive. Our positions emphasize individualism and rejects deceptive collectivist concepts like "the greater good" (as if anybody could actually measure that). Likewise, voluntaryists reject nationalism - human beings matter, the nation that claims them does not. Nationalism is the root of callousness. Doubt it? Watch American news sometimes and notice how they'll almost always comment (say, after a plane crash) at the number of dead "plus four Americans" as if those 4 families are somehow more important than the other sons and daughters, husbands and wives. Likewise, it's contrary to the voluntaryist philosophy to advocate that people form a state and break away from a nation - we reject both concepts. What we recognize is contracts and consent. Since I was not a signer to the United States Constitution, and have sworn no oath to be bound by it, what does it matter to me except for words on paper? I did not agree to follow laws, so what force do they have over me other than the men with guns willing to hurt me for not doing so? My parents, not I, enrolled in Social Security so how and I bound to pay it? I am not. I am NOT. I AM NOT.
Personal secession is about standing on principle. I am against the murder of people, so I do not like war. Yet I still pay taxes which fund that war. I do not like the police aggression against non-violent drug users, yet I pay taxes to the state that is used to lock them in cages. These things sit uneasily with me. My option is to simply stop. Stop following the government people's orders. Stop paying for their murder engine and their indoctrination camps for children. Stop following their laws. In short, I'll simply live free.
Today, I am afraid of that. Those thugs with guns don't like people "stepping out of line" and they'll hurt me. But this won't be the case in New Hampshire! Already dozens upon dozens of liberty activists are refusing to cooperate. For now it's simple things, like filling a courtroom with pro-liberty supporters when someone is charged with a victimless crime and simply refusing to stand for the judge. We're all created equal right? If he's not standing for you, why would an equal stand for him? My fear falls away when activists like Lauren Canario and Kat Kanning stand on principle. My fear falls away when I think about the liberty potential of any area with thousands of liberty activists on the ground, mobilizing for freedom. The government thugs use violence against people I love today because of the Drug War. How might liberty activists clog that system if everyone charged with a simple drug possession "offense" merely took the damn case to trial? This is personal secession - living free. Simply that, living free.
If an oasis of liberty sprang up, would you visit it? If 20,000 liberty-loving activists moved to New Hampshire today, would you too move for more freedom? If you answered yes, please join the Free State Project. You're not committing to move today, next week or next year. What you're saying is IF 20,000 liberty-loving people made the move, you'd move too within 5 years. Do you like the idea, but think that moving is impossible or not the best way to achieve liberty? Consider signing up as a Friend of the Free State Project like Ron Paul. A friend of mine from Europe has come to see that liberty isn't growing where he's living. With the European Union a growing source of discontent he's decided to reach out to liberty-lovers outside of the US with Free Staters International. He himself is a signed member of the Free State Project so it's not "just" an "American thing".
Standing alone is scary. Standing with others is empowering, breeds a cycle of confidence boosting and standing in turn. I'll stand in New Hampshire. Will you stand with me?
Qt Extended 4.4.2 on Freerunner
It appears that I may have spoken too soon. Earlier this morning, Qt Extended 4.4.2 flash images for Neo 1973 and Neo Freerunner devices.
Interestingly, I noticed that download.openmoko.org also now had packages for the Neo 1973. Perhaps it was a buildhost issue, or perhaps I missed it but there are now images of the testing branch of 2008.09.
First off, 4.4.2 fixes several bugs. The first one that makes me very happy is that headphones now switch properly. Plugging in a set of headphones turns off the speakers on the device and routes audio exclusively to the headset or AUX line. This means for the first time, I'm able to listen to my podcasts without disturbing my co-workers! Score!
The "media player crashes upon resume" bug has been fixed. Resuming from suspend now works cleanly, even on paused audio. The playback resumes after phone call bug has been "touched" but not exactly corrected. Now, after a phone call, the media doesn't begin playing again, but it causes a soft freeze. The pause/play button is still responsive, but the audio doesn't playback and the timer isn't advancing.
GSM on the Freerunner is working. No bouncing, no disconnects. I tested incoming calls on the 1973 and there was still a very strong echo and the ringer didn't play. I have yet to test calls on the Freerunner using the latest Qt Extended image.
The SMS import issue seems to have also been corrected and the "missing" SMS from the FSO testing image has appeared in the list. Sweet!
So far, the Qt Extended 4.4.2 images seem to work very well. I'm actually so happy with it that I've, for the first time, been able to bring the Freerunner to work instead of the 1973. Additionally, I've added a custom wallpaper to my theme - a first and an indicator that things are getting better.
Interestingly, I noticed that download.openmoko.org also now had packages for the Neo 1973. Perhaps it was a buildhost issue, or perhaps I missed it but there are now images of the testing branch of 2008.09.
First off, 4.4.2 fixes several bugs. The first one that makes me very happy is that headphones now switch properly. Plugging in a set of headphones turns off the speakers on the device and routes audio exclusively to the headset or AUX line. This means for the first time, I'm able to listen to my podcasts without disturbing my co-workers! Score!
The "media player crashes upon resume" bug has been fixed. Resuming from suspend now works cleanly, even on paused audio. The playback resumes after phone call bug has been "touched" but not exactly corrected. Now, after a phone call, the media doesn't begin playing again, but it causes a soft freeze. The pause/play button is still responsive, but the audio doesn't playback and the timer isn't advancing.
GSM on the Freerunner is working. No bouncing, no disconnects. I tested incoming calls on the 1973 and there was still a very strong echo and the ringer didn't play. I have yet to test calls on the Freerunner using the latest Qt Extended image.
The SMS import issue seems to have also been corrected and the "missing" SMS from the FSO testing image has appeared in the list. Sweet!
So far, the Qt Extended 4.4.2 images seem to work very well. I'm actually so happy with it that I've, for the first time, been able to bring the Freerunner to work instead of the 1973. Additionally, I've added a custom wallpaper to my theme - a first and an indicator that things are getting better.
My software doesn't work. :(
I've got both a Neo 1973 and a Neo Freerunner. I've had the latter for a while now, but it hasn't managed to work it's way into daily use for me. Why? A series of issues in one area or another than simply makes the device unusable for me.
My Neo devices are used as phones, media players and text message devices. If I can't make a call, the device isn't working. If I can't listen to Free Talk Live on my drives to and from work (I drive 55 miles each way, I need my podcast!) then I'm not happy.
And not happy I am!
Let's first give credit where credit is due. There are some issues that have existed for a while that are actually getting resolutions. The biggest of them recently was a fix to the echo bug that's upset our friends on the other line for months! Suspend and resume is working reliably in about 95% of the cases and this results is a MUCH improved battery life.
The last time I installed the ASU on Freerunner, the GSM connection kept "bouncing", that is connecting with T-Mobile and disconnecting. This is but one of the several GSM issues on the Freerunner itself, since other images (such as Qt Extended) simply don't register with the network at all. This has been the primary reason the Freerunner hasn't made it into my pocket as a dash down the stairs.
The Neo1973, however, connects to GSM reliably. This is good news, because it means it's even a candidate for use.
The official Openmoko repo (downloads.openmoko.org) doesn't build images for the 1973 anymore, which sucks. What this leaves me with is Qt Extended and the FSO images. I hear there are SHR images that don't provide the media player functionality I need and that Android is being ported right now. It also leaves me with Debian, which is an awesome thing in my eyes.
I tried installing Debian on my 1973 using the InstallDebian script and the Wiki instructions on Debian.org. I've got the various partitions created and Debian is installed, yet uBoot complains of a bad magic number, preventing me from booting Debian.
I then move to Qt Extended 4.4.1. This software stack offers probably the best combination of half-baked features of all of the images.
Calls are unreliable. If my wife calls me, the phone rings, but I can't answer it. For a while, I was relegated to outgoing calls only, until magically it began working on incoming calls... half the time.
The SMS system works for sending and receiving, but it never seems to realize when it's already seen a message. Imagine getting a text message, reading it, and then getting a second message and being prompted you've got two new messages. Okay, but that's not it. It's not that it simply "forgot" you've viewed the message. At some point in the process, it actually re-imported it, so viewing that second message shows 4 messages, two copies of each. Repeat this for every new incoming message and it gets old. Fast.
And then I turn to the media player. It works, it really does. Most of the time.
One of the most annoying things about this media player is not a bug but a design decision. I listen to podcasts that are 2 hours long, and I listen to it in two sessions - going to work and coming home from work. There is a pause button to pause playback. In the unfortunate chance that the battery dies or the media player crashes, there's no slider to find where I left off. Instead, I have to hold down a section on the screen to do a 2x fast forward (maybe it's faster than 2x, but not by much) until I get to that point. To make this more difficult, the same toolbar sometimes appears as the volume control and sometimes it's a control panel that has "Skip track, stop and pause" as options. The media player can play a file from start to finish, uninterrupted, but by god if you need to do something more advanced with it (like answer a phone call!) you're out of luck.
In that specific phone call scenario, it's a known bug that paused media player files resume playback after calls are disconnected. They don't STAY paused. That's okay though, because you know what happens to paused music? Let me tell you. :)
If you pause the media player, it goes into suspend monitoring mode. In a few seconds, the phone suspends to save power. It's a great thing, except that the media player crashes (or stops and closes) immediately upon resume. Couple this with the fast forward lack and you'll see why my post right now is so full of vitriol.
With that said, Qt Extended is the best option there is right now for my devices. I have very seriously considered selling them and just buying a "regular" phone because I'm rapidly growing tired of the hassle, yet I keep getting roped in by the prospect of things getting better. After all, some things ARE getting better!
In frustration, I then turned to the FSO Testing images. GSM works much better on those images. I can reliably call in and out all the time on the FSO images, but text messages seem to vanish into the ether on both legs of the trip. I get "unset" in front of all of the messages I send, and I receive nothing sent to me.
The media player on the FSO testing images is also pretty bad. It can play MP3 files but only after importing via a clunky file manager interface. If you import files you don't want, I haven't seen a clear way to delete them. Not a good thing, especially if the files cause the player to crash, which some do.
My podcasts play though which is all that really matter. The FSO media player even has a slider bar! When I first saw it, I was thrilled and tested it by sliding to the middle of the... CRASH.
Damn. :(
It's a fully repeatable crash that offers no information as to it's source.
Why am I bitching today? Well, it's simple. Lorn from Qt Software (Nokia) is currently whipping up new Qt Extended images based on the fairly new 4.4.2 source and the FSO Milestone 4 release is scheduled to happen today (thought past releases have been late but reasonably so). I'm complaining because I've got hope that things will change!
I really hope they do.
My Neo devices are used as phones, media players and text message devices. If I can't make a call, the device isn't working. If I can't listen to Free Talk Live on my drives to and from work (I drive 55 miles each way, I need my podcast!) then I'm not happy.
And not happy I am!
Let's first give credit where credit is due. There are some issues that have existed for a while that are actually getting resolutions. The biggest of them recently was a fix to the echo bug that's upset our friends on the other line for months! Suspend and resume is working reliably in about 95% of the cases and this results is a MUCH improved battery life.
The last time I installed the ASU on Freerunner, the GSM connection kept "bouncing", that is connecting with T-Mobile and disconnecting. This is but one of the several GSM issues on the Freerunner itself, since other images (such as Qt Extended) simply don't register with the network at all. This has been the primary reason the Freerunner hasn't made it into my pocket as a dash down the stairs.
The Neo1973, however, connects to GSM reliably. This is good news, because it means it's even a candidate for use.
The official Openmoko repo (downloads.openmoko.org) doesn't build images for the 1973 anymore, which sucks. What this leaves me with is Qt Extended and the FSO images. I hear there are SHR images that don't provide the media player functionality I need and that Android is being ported right now. It also leaves me with Debian, which is an awesome thing in my eyes.
I tried installing Debian on my 1973 using the InstallDebian script and the Wiki instructions on Debian.org. I've got the various partitions created and Debian is installed, yet uBoot complains of a bad magic number, preventing me from booting Debian.
I then move to Qt Extended 4.4.1. This software stack offers probably the best combination of half-baked features of all of the images.
Calls are unreliable. If my wife calls me, the phone rings, but I can't answer it. For a while, I was relegated to outgoing calls only, until magically it began working on incoming calls... half the time.
The SMS system works for sending and receiving, but it never seems to realize when it's already seen a message. Imagine getting a text message, reading it, and then getting a second message and being prompted you've got two new messages. Okay, but that's not it. It's not that it simply "forgot" you've viewed the message. At some point in the process, it actually re-imported it, so viewing that second message shows 4 messages, two copies of each. Repeat this for every new incoming message and it gets old. Fast.
And then I turn to the media player. It works, it really does. Most of the time.
One of the most annoying things about this media player is not a bug but a design decision. I listen to podcasts that are 2 hours long, and I listen to it in two sessions - going to work and coming home from work. There is a pause button to pause playback. In the unfortunate chance that the battery dies or the media player crashes, there's no slider to find where I left off. Instead, I have to hold down a section on the screen to do a 2x fast forward (maybe it's faster than 2x, but not by much) until I get to that point. To make this more difficult, the same toolbar sometimes appears as the volume control and sometimes it's a control panel that has "Skip track, stop and pause" as options. The media player can play a file from start to finish, uninterrupted, but by god if you need to do something more advanced with it (like answer a phone call!) you're out of luck.
In that specific phone call scenario, it's a known bug that paused media player files resume playback after calls are disconnected. They don't STAY paused. That's okay though, because you know what happens to paused music? Let me tell you. :)
If you pause the media player, it goes into suspend monitoring mode. In a few seconds, the phone suspends to save power. It's a great thing, except that the media player crashes (or stops and closes) immediately upon resume. Couple this with the fast forward lack and you'll see why my post right now is so full of vitriol.
With that said, Qt Extended is the best option there is right now for my devices. I have very seriously considered selling them and just buying a "regular" phone because I'm rapidly growing tired of the hassle, yet I keep getting roped in by the prospect of things getting better. After all, some things ARE getting better!
In frustration, I then turned to the FSO Testing images. GSM works much better on those images. I can reliably call in and out all the time on the FSO images, but text messages seem to vanish into the ether on both legs of the trip. I get "unset" in front of all of the messages I send, and I receive nothing sent to me.
The media player on the FSO testing images is also pretty bad. It can play MP3 files but only after importing via a clunky file manager interface. If you import files you don't want, I haven't seen a clear way to delete them. Not a good thing, especially if the files cause the player to crash, which some do.
My podcasts play though which is all that really matter. The FSO media player even has a slider bar! When I first saw it, I was thrilled and tested it by sliding to the middle of the... CRASH.
Damn. :(
It's a fully repeatable crash that offers no information as to it's source.
Why am I bitching today? Well, it's simple. Lorn from Qt Software (Nokia) is currently whipping up new Qt Extended images based on the fairly new 4.4.2 source and the FSO Milestone 4 release is scheduled to happen today (thought past releases have been late but reasonably so). I'm complaining because I've got hope that things will change!
I really hope they do.
Stop me if you've heard this one...
Below is an actual transcript of a chat I had with a friend via IRC. There are so many levels of "messed up" in this story that I'm not even sure I can write an article on it.
Me: Did you ever hear of the girl who was arrested for producing child pornography?
Friend: Nope.
Me: She took pictures of herself!
Me: LOL
Me: *rim-shot*
Me: http://www.newarkadvocate.com/article/20081008/NEWS01/810080302
Me: I mean, this article ended up in the paper. The fact that she's been arrested and put in a cage for taking pictures of herself is sick. So I figured there had to be a joke in there somewhere.
Me: Did you ever hear of the girl who was arrested for producing child pornography?
Friend: Nope.
Me: She took pictures of herself!
Me: LOL
Me: *rim-shot*
Me: http://www.newarkadvocate.com/article/20081008/NEWS01/810080302
Me: I mean, this article ended up in the paper. The fact that she's been arrested and put in a cage for taking pictures of herself is sick. So I figured there had to be a joke in there somewhere.
Homesteading
Sometimes when I discuss the free market, the ideas are sound, but less inventive people sometimes struggle to conceptualize how society would cope with the transition from what we have today to a society driven by voluntary interaction.
With corporations in existence, using the violent guns of government to protect greedy and negligent people from the impact of their actions, there is this great imbalance. Licensing laws today prevent people with skills, but little money, from starting and maintaining businesses to support themselves and their families.
When we cast off this horrible notion of government, people who had previously used violence to take the wealth from people would still have that wealth. How then, does the restrictions upon the poorer people correct themselves?
For one, skills take very little to manifest themselves when regulatory hurdles are removed. But what about the absolute poorest of the poor, those sleeping on bus benches because they have literally nothing but the clothes on their back?
Homesteading.
It's a topic that, even among the liberty-aware, isn't really talked about. The vast majority of us reject the idea of "public property". In our view, "public property" is owned by nobody, not "by everybody" as a lot of people like to think. The reason, simply, is that property ownership is an absolute. Only the person who owns something can control it. If you buy a watch, you as the owner may destroy it when you wish. Who then, has the ability to destroy "public property" when it no longer suits them? Nobody - it is unowned.
When the paradigm of force ends, that is, when people no longer accept that institutionalized forms of harming their neighbor are okay, all of this unowned land will then open up. Surely, some of the land will be taken by "big business", such as forests for loggers. On the flip side, nature enthusiasts will also "make grabs" to sustain wildlife preserves, property to use as tourist attractions.
But the very poor, they'll be able to stake their claim in the unused properties of today's government buildings. Perhaps the homeless in Washington DC will move from the park benches to the former IRS buildings. More realistically, some of the more inventive and resourceful of those will find some land out of the way and begin building their own dreams. Free of zoning and permitting fees, this becomes quite a feasible and realistic thing.
What? It will never happen, you say?
But it does. It even happens today, actually. For proof, let's turn to the story of Squirrel Man, David Csaky. David is one of those more "tragic" cases, born into poverty as a child in Los Angeles, David decided that rather than turning to the government for handouts, or relying forever on a chain of charities, he would stake out his own claim and build a home, even if the government people wouldn't accept that.
Not accept it they did!
Above is a picture of David's house. Most of us might take pity on him at first, that this poor man is living in a home made apartment, yet this is a home David built with his hands. This is David's home, his place of respite and solace. He owns it, and is intimately familiar with it.
And the government thugs want David out, they want the David's home destroyed they won't take no for an answer.
"I'm tired," David said. "I just want to be left alone. I'm not hurting anyone." As local government people plan to demolish David's home, which is built in a cluster of trees under a highway overpass, for the third time in three years, neighbors and fellow city residents tell tales that support David's claim of causing no harm.
"David's a unique character but a good neighbor. He's built this amazing treehouse in the middle of a city," said Janet Yoder. "I certainly believe he's not a threat of any kind to anyone." An owner of an apartment complex across the street from David's home, Yoder has a vested interest in the quality of the neighborhood.
Next to David's home sits Ross Laboratory, owned by Jim Ross who says of David ""He works hard, he's kind of become the neighborhood watchdog." Other neighbors credit David for helping keep crime down and he keeps the vacant lot clean.
None of that matters to employees of the Department of Transportation, who's employees would not even identify themselves for the article, as their violent act of eviction and home destruction would not be so acceptable if done outside the veil of "government authority", whatever that means.
The violence, destruction and apathy that government relies on is very real. For David, it's not a hypothetical, it literally means the difference between having a home and being homeless. Do you support that kind of violence? Do you support a society where adherence to rules (that when broken harm nobody) to more important than the lives destroyed in the process?
It's time to end this paradigm of stolen land, perpetual poverty and disregard for human well-being. It's time to abolish government. It's just too sick.
With corporations in existence, using the violent guns of government to protect greedy and negligent people from the impact of their actions, there is this great imbalance. Licensing laws today prevent people with skills, but little money, from starting and maintaining businesses to support themselves and their families.
When we cast off this horrible notion of government, people who had previously used violence to take the wealth from people would still have that wealth. How then, does the restrictions upon the poorer people correct themselves?
For one, skills take very little to manifest themselves when regulatory hurdles are removed. But what about the absolute poorest of the poor, those sleeping on bus benches because they have literally nothing but the clothes on their back?
Homesteading.
It's a topic that, even among the liberty-aware, isn't really talked about. The vast majority of us reject the idea of "public property". In our view, "public property" is owned by nobody, not "by everybody" as a lot of people like to think. The reason, simply, is that property ownership is an absolute. Only the person who owns something can control it. If you buy a watch, you as the owner may destroy it when you wish. Who then, has the ability to destroy "public property" when it no longer suits them? Nobody - it is unowned.
When the paradigm of force ends, that is, when people no longer accept that institutionalized forms of harming their neighbor are okay, all of this unowned land will then open up. Surely, some of the land will be taken by "big business", such as forests for loggers. On the flip side, nature enthusiasts will also "make grabs" to sustain wildlife preserves, property to use as tourist attractions.
But the very poor, they'll be able to stake their claim in the unused properties of today's government buildings. Perhaps the homeless in Washington DC will move from the park benches to the former IRS buildings. More realistically, some of the more inventive and resourceful of those will find some land out of the way and begin building their own dreams. Free of zoning and permitting fees, this becomes quite a feasible and realistic thing.
What? It will never happen, you say?
But it does. It even happens today, actually. For proof, let's turn to the story of Squirrel Man, David Csaky. David is one of those more "tragic" cases, born into poverty as a child in Los Angeles, David decided that rather than turning to the government for handouts, or relying forever on a chain of charities, he would stake out his own claim and build a home, even if the government people wouldn't accept that.
Not accept it they did!
Above is a picture of David's house. Most of us might take pity on him at first, that this poor man is living in a home made apartment, yet this is a home David built with his hands. This is David's home, his place of respite and solace. He owns it, and is intimately familiar with it.
And the government thugs want David out, they want the David's home destroyed they won't take no for an answer.
"I'm tired," David said. "I just want to be left alone. I'm not hurting anyone." As local government people plan to demolish David's home, which is built in a cluster of trees under a highway overpass, for the third time in three years, neighbors and fellow city residents tell tales that support David's claim of causing no harm.
"David's a unique character but a good neighbor. He's built this amazing treehouse in the middle of a city," said Janet Yoder. "I certainly believe he's not a threat of any kind to anyone." An owner of an apartment complex across the street from David's home, Yoder has a vested interest in the quality of the neighborhood.
Next to David's home sits Ross Laboratory, owned by Jim Ross who says of David ""He works hard, he's kind of become the neighborhood watchdog." Other neighbors credit David for helping keep crime down and he keeps the vacant lot clean.
None of that matters to employees of the Department of Transportation, who's employees would not even identify themselves for the article, as their violent act of eviction and home destruction would not be so acceptable if done outside the veil of "government authority", whatever that means.
The violence, destruction and apathy that government relies on is very real. For David, it's not a hypothetical, it literally means the difference between having a home and being homeless. Do you support that kind of violence? Do you support a society where adherence to rules (that when broken harm nobody) to more important than the lives destroyed in the process?
It's time to end this paradigm of stolen land, perpetual poverty and disregard for human well-being. It's time to abolish government. It's just too sick.
Statism Makes Me Sick
Sometimes I refer to government schools as "indoctrination camps". This sometimes pisses people off because they don't want to face the reality.
Normally, however, I'm "merely" referring to how those schools teach "sit down, shut up and raise your hand to speak" when the real world passes by if you obey those dictates.
Tonight though, I mean it. INDOCTRINATION.
In the same vein as the Bellamy Salute, inspired by the Christian SocialistFrancis Bellamy, and the Nazi salute give me the chills, so do two videos I saw today.
In the first, school children are singing about how "Obama's Gonna' Change It!". The "high production value" of the video might cause you to miss, some of the singing is taking place in what appears to be a public school. At the end of the video, it shows footage of German children singing to the leader they were told embodied "hope".
In the second, a line of students march in wearing uniform clothing, marching in step and chanting. When they speak, they say "Because of Obama, I'm inspired to be...". What they are saying is positive on the surface. People feeling inspired and empowered is a good thing. Watch it though. They're all the same. Uniform in clothing, in step, in voice, even in haircut. Conformity while discussing inspiration? Then it becomes clear. The young men then begin talking about Obama's policy (health care in specific) in which we all must be robbed to pay for everyone else. We're not individuals, this video says, we're all the same, all parts of a "greater" and Obama is above us. Rubbish, all. It's so sad. Those guys are proclaiming their goals. To be a carpenter or a chemical engineer, and yet all the while march and act in a display the subsumes the talented, productive and wealth producing individual to the fatigues-and-navy drone.
Lest someone think that I'm anti-Obama, I'm not.
JohnMcMaverick McCain is being a bit more blatant with his message of subsuming the individual. He calls directly for people to put "country first". Put "country first" as he uses propaganda to continue the destruction of wealth and the slaughter of human lives across to globe (It's not just Iraq and Afghanistan, US troops are in over 150 nations, though not all killing at the same rate as the ones in Iraq.)
"Country first" as he votes to fire up the printing presses of the Federal Reserve and shrink the buying power of all holders of the Federal Reserve Note (Sometimes incorrectly called dollar), the majority in America using that currency all the time.
Not individuals, who have families to feed. Not individuals, who's skills and talents produce uncountable wealth and generate prosperity. Not individuals with rights and liberty. No, not individuals - country first.
Barack Obama and JohnMcMaverick McCain are two sides of the same statist coin. The flavors don't matter, because the means are the same. Both want to wield the violence and coercion that is the state. Both want to use force to take lives and take wealth. Both are destructive, unethical and dangerous.
Don't take my word for it? Listen from "the man" himself as Barack Obama explains what governments (or in his word, nation-states) have - a monopoly on the use of violence.
Normally, however, I'm "merely" referring to how those schools teach "sit down, shut up and raise your hand to speak" when the real world passes by if you obey those dictates.
Tonight though, I mean it. INDOCTRINATION.
In the same vein as the Bellamy Salute, inspired by the Christian SocialistFrancis Bellamy, and the Nazi salute give me the chills, so do two videos I saw today.
In the first, school children are singing about how "Obama's Gonna' Change It!". The "high production value" of the video might cause you to miss, some of the singing is taking place in what appears to be a public school. At the end of the video, it shows footage of German children singing to the leader they were told embodied "hope".
In the second, a line of students march in wearing uniform clothing, marching in step and chanting. When they speak, they say "Because of Obama, I'm inspired to be...". What they are saying is positive on the surface. People feeling inspired and empowered is a good thing. Watch it though. They're all the same. Uniform in clothing, in step, in voice, even in haircut. Conformity while discussing inspiration? Then it becomes clear. The young men then begin talking about Obama's policy (health care in specific) in which we all must be robbed to pay for everyone else. We're not individuals, this video says, we're all the same, all parts of a "greater" and Obama is above us. Rubbish, all. It's so sad. Those guys are proclaiming their goals. To be a carpenter or a chemical engineer, and yet all the while march and act in a display the subsumes the talented, productive and wealth producing individual to the fatigues-and-navy drone.
Lest someone think that I'm anti-Obama, I'm not.
John
"Country first" as he votes to fire up the printing presses of the Federal Reserve and shrink the buying power of all holders of the Federal Reserve Note (Sometimes incorrectly called dollar), the majority in America using that currency all the time.
Not individuals, who have families to feed. Not individuals, who's skills and talents produce uncountable wealth and generate prosperity. Not individuals with rights and liberty. No, not individuals - country first.
Barack Obama and John
Don't take my word for it? Listen from "the man" himself as Barack Obama explains what governments (or in his word, nation-states) have - a monopoly on the use of violence.
A Trip Down (Linux) Memory Lane
I was chatting today with someone on Freenode and somewhere the chat turned from the Acer Aspire One to Linux "back then". Sometimes I like to remember the path that brought me to where I am today (especially considering that I'm a "Linux professional").
They (whomever they are) say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and while I might dispute that number, I don't dispute the idea.
Below are two screenshots. I've got a big binder that I've been stashing away Linux install ISOs in. Some are from my old Mac PowerPC days, some are from when x86 was a given and some are from the modern AMD64 era. Anyway, some of the "gems" from that binder upon brief inspection today was SimplyMepis 3.4 - a distro that has moved from Debian to Ubuntu and back to Debian in the time since then.
Also, there's Gentoo 2006.01, a distro that for it's time, was cutting edge (see this post on distros and innovation) and fresh and exciting.
Those two distros are running in kernel based virtual machines (KVM) with 640 MB of RAM. The irony there is that when I actually used those CDs to install, it was on a machine with 512 MB of RAM. Interesting that I can now allot resources to virtual machines in excess of what I used to run and still browse the web and conduct an IRC chat. In contrast with those two distros is the host machine's "About GNOME" which proudly displays the 2.24 version.
Enjoy the trip down memory lane.
They (whomever they are) say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and while I might dispute that number, I don't dispute the idea.
Below are two screenshots. I've got a big binder that I've been stashing away Linux install ISOs in. Some are from my old Mac PowerPC days, some are from when x86 was a given and some are from the modern AMD64 era. Anyway, some of the "gems" from that binder upon brief inspection today was SimplyMepis 3.4 - a distro that has moved from Debian to Ubuntu and back to Debian in the time since then.
Also, there's Gentoo 2006.01, a distro that for it's time, was cutting edge (see this post on distros and innovation) and fresh and exciting.
Those two distros are running in kernel based virtual machines (KVM) with 640 MB of RAM. The irony there is that when I actually used those CDs to install, it was on a machine with 512 MB of RAM. Interesting that I can now allot resources to virtual machines in excess of what I used to run and still browse the web and conduct an IRC chat. In contrast with those two distros is the host machine's "About GNOME" which proudly displays the 2.24 version.
Enjoy the trip down memory lane.
A Web Service That Meets My Need
I seldom get excited about web services. I like YouTube and Flickr and all of those great services, but I've always hated relying on other people for data integrity. If Flickr goes under, my images are gone. If their servers go down, same thing.
"If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself" pretty much describes my computing philosophy. So when I found a service two days ago that knocked my socks off, it's a pretty "big" thing to me.
Let me first explain my need. I like creativity for the sake of creativity, but to be really exciting, something has to solve a problem I have.
I'm in a state of flux right now in how I view and use computers. The first computer I had purchased myself was a laptop which had a ton of problems. Because of those problems (namely, overheating and immediate power down) I essentially swore off laptops. Mobility was over-rated.
That philosophy guided my computing habits. I've been tethered to a desktop ever since. The systems have changed but the form factor hadn't.
When Openmoko's Neo products came out, I liked the idea of a Free Software powered phone, so I bought it. Having a tiny little computer to hack on began introducing me to new things. Rather than burning MP3 CD's for my Element, I downloaded podcasts and played them from the Neo. I began storing images on it and notes, video. In short, mobility became slightly less over-rated.
With the mobility bug still kicked in, and my current desktop coming on the year-and-a-half mark (still not a bad PC, Core 2 Duo with 4GB of RAM, almost 2 TB of disk space and a decent nVidia card) I've decided it's time to move on. The mobility bug kept biting though.
My decision to move on resulted in me deciding to purchase two netbooks and I've settled on the Acer Aspire One. My wife had been impressing upon me the desire for a laptop so she can play games in her comfortable chair. Another very real reason is that my apartment, while not small, is too small for the stuff we have. I've got these massive industrial tables my computer sites on, and eliminating those would free up a lot of space in my room and the same is true of my wife's room. My ever expanding brewery is a space hog.
We're going mobile. To make the transition more difficult, my wife has requested that her netbook be a Windows XP system for various reasons (biggest being work's high dependence on Windows). The way our desktops are set up right now has NFS shares of music, pictures and movies so that they're network transparent. This is important. My wife shouldn't have to do anything special to access and use her files. NFS allows this.
But how do you share files transparently between Windows and Linux? Samba sucks. Some people hold it up as a bastion of greatness, but it's always sucked in my experience. I don't particularly blame Samba either, I'm sure it's the Windows networking that actually sucks. Additionally, the home file server which contains all of this music is behind a rather slow (I work with GigE bandwidth, so a 3 meg connection is quite slow in my eyes) DSL connection which simply doesn't cut it for NFS shares. Add to this that NFS is insecure by itself, that NFS tunneling over ssh is not "transparent" for Windows and my file server becomes essentially useless for "the mobile world". What I need is a way to give myself and my wife access to our files anywhere we go, make that access transparent for her and ensure it works on Linux and Windows.
I found such a solution. It's Dropbox.
Dropbox is a service that offers 2GB of file storage and syncing for free. You can upgrade to 50GB for $9.99 a month or $99 a year. There are clients for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. Specifically for the Linux side, it's a Nautilus plug-in and userspace daemon. The basic idea behind the service is that all files in your dropbox directory are copied onto Dropbox's servers. Drop files into that directory and the changes are synced automatically. You're given access to your files on any computer running the Dropbox application as well as on any browser that handles sessions (which is all modern browsers) through their web panel.
Changes to your folder are pushed to any computer also running Dropbox and configured for your account. Here at work, I've got the newly installed Dropbox running and I now have access to some of my music and images just as transparently as the NFS/Samba server over yonder.
It's a bit nicer than a convoluted rsync setup. Only changes are pushed, limiting bandwidth consumption to their servers and to clients awaiting sync. To make it even more special, on the Dropbox forums it's pretty clear that each file is also hashed and if you're attempting to upload a file with a matching hash, the file is just copied server-side rather than uploaded. In this specific case, someone was trying to upload an Ubuntu ISO and to sync took about three seconds to be in his account and usable.
What Dropbox does for our mobile situation is allows both my wife and I to access our music transparently. I tend to download new music and ensure it's properly tagged, so new music and changes are then pushed to her. If she wants to blacklist songs, she can, and if a co-worker gives her a new song, it can be given to me to "process" without much shuffling. Because it's internet based, it's accessible anywhere and not dependent on my slow home DSL.
I've also suggested it here at work. We currently use GoDaddy's FileVault to co-ordinate with the designers who work from home. One of the issues we've had with that is integration. While it works with Internet Explorer, it's quite unusable with Firefox. Dropbox could solve this problem, allowing our company to share the files we use with our out-of-office employees regardless of the platform they're using. It would allow all the people to get instant updates (like when I hack on some of our internal web apps, for instance, and bump the version.) without even thinking. It's currently in evaluation here, hopefully it will take.
Dropbox provides binary packages for Fedora and Ubuntu, as well as source repositories for theoretical use on any Debian-based distro that can meet it's dependencies. Binaries exist for Ubuntu Gutsy and Hardy, both AMD64 and i386 and there is also a source tarball, though I'm not sure how well it works with other distros.
I'm quite thrilled with this, and as long as there aren't hangups between now and when I purchase my netbooks, they'll have made a missionary customer out of me.
Now all I need is a reliable, high-speed mobile internet connection and I'll be all set. I love how people are innovating and can meet my needs!
"If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself" pretty much describes my computing philosophy. So when I found a service two days ago that knocked my socks off, it's a pretty "big" thing to me.
Let me first explain my need. I like creativity for the sake of creativity, but to be really exciting, something has to solve a problem I have.
I'm in a state of flux right now in how I view and use computers. The first computer I had purchased myself was a laptop which had a ton of problems. Because of those problems (namely, overheating and immediate power down) I essentially swore off laptops. Mobility was over-rated.
That philosophy guided my computing habits. I've been tethered to a desktop ever since. The systems have changed but the form factor hadn't.
When Openmoko's Neo products came out, I liked the idea of a Free Software powered phone, so I bought it. Having a tiny little computer to hack on began introducing me to new things. Rather than burning MP3 CD's for my Element, I downloaded podcasts and played them from the Neo. I began storing images on it and notes, video. In short, mobility became slightly less over-rated.
With the mobility bug still kicked in, and my current desktop coming on the year-and-a-half mark (still not a bad PC, Core 2 Duo with 4GB of RAM, almost 2 TB of disk space and a decent nVidia card) I've decided it's time to move on. The mobility bug kept biting though.
My decision to move on resulted in me deciding to purchase two netbooks and I've settled on the Acer Aspire One. My wife had been impressing upon me the desire for a laptop so she can play games in her comfortable chair. Another very real reason is that my apartment, while not small, is too small for the stuff we have. I've got these massive industrial tables my computer sites on, and eliminating those would free up a lot of space in my room and the same is true of my wife's room. My ever expanding brewery is a space hog.
We're going mobile. To make the transition more difficult, my wife has requested that her netbook be a Windows XP system for various reasons (biggest being work's high dependence on Windows). The way our desktops are set up right now has NFS shares of music, pictures and movies so that they're network transparent. This is important. My wife shouldn't have to do anything special to access and use her files. NFS allows this.
But how do you share files transparently between Windows and Linux? Samba sucks. Some people hold it up as a bastion of greatness, but it's always sucked in my experience. I don't particularly blame Samba either, I'm sure it's the Windows networking that actually sucks. Additionally, the home file server which contains all of this music is behind a rather slow (I work with GigE bandwidth, so a 3 meg connection is quite slow in my eyes) DSL connection which simply doesn't cut it for NFS shares. Add to this that NFS is insecure by itself, that NFS tunneling over ssh is not "transparent" for Windows and my file server becomes essentially useless for "the mobile world". What I need is a way to give myself and my wife access to our files anywhere we go, make that access transparent for her and ensure it works on Linux and Windows.
I found such a solution. It's Dropbox.
Dropbox is a service that offers 2GB of file storage and syncing for free. You can upgrade to 50GB for $9.99 a month or $99 a year. There are clients for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. Specifically for the Linux side, it's a Nautilus plug-in and userspace daemon. The basic idea behind the service is that all files in your dropbox directory are copied onto Dropbox's servers. Drop files into that directory and the changes are synced automatically. You're given access to your files on any computer running the Dropbox application as well as on any browser that handles sessions (which is all modern browsers) through their web panel.
Changes to your folder are pushed to any computer also running Dropbox and configured for your account. Here at work, I've got the newly installed Dropbox running and I now have access to some of my music and images just as transparently as the NFS/Samba server over yonder.
It's a bit nicer than a convoluted rsync setup. Only changes are pushed, limiting bandwidth consumption to their servers and to clients awaiting sync. To make it even more special, on the Dropbox forums it's pretty clear that each file is also hashed and if you're attempting to upload a file with a matching hash, the file is just copied server-side rather than uploaded. In this specific case, someone was trying to upload an Ubuntu ISO and to sync took about three seconds to be in his account and usable.
What Dropbox does for our mobile situation is allows both my wife and I to access our music transparently. I tend to download new music and ensure it's properly tagged, so new music and changes are then pushed to her. If she wants to blacklist songs, she can, and if a co-worker gives her a new song, it can be given to me to "process" without much shuffling. Because it's internet based, it's accessible anywhere and not dependent on my slow home DSL.
I've also suggested it here at work. We currently use GoDaddy's FileVault to co-ordinate with the designers who work from home. One of the issues we've had with that is integration. While it works with Internet Explorer, it's quite unusable with Firefox. Dropbox could solve this problem, allowing our company to share the files we use with our out-of-office employees regardless of the platform they're using. It would allow all the people to get instant updates (like when I hack on some of our internal web apps, for instance, and bump the version.) without even thinking. It's currently in evaluation here, hopefully it will take.
Dropbox provides binary packages for Fedora and Ubuntu, as well as source repositories for theoretical use on any Debian-based distro that can meet it's dependencies. Binaries exist for Ubuntu Gutsy and Hardy, both AMD64 and i386 and there is also a source tarball, though I'm not sure how well it works with other distros.
I'm quite thrilled with this, and as long as there aren't hangups between now and when I purchase my netbooks, they'll have made a missionary customer out of me.
Now all I need is a reliable, high-speed mobile internet connection and I'll be all set. I love how people are innovating and can meet my needs!
I'm working on my site, please bear with me.
If I'm spamming syndicated readers, I truly apologize. This is a "I've just upgraded and things might be broken" post.
As regular visitors to my site may immediately notice, the theme has changed today. The menus on the sides are faulty too. I know this, please bear with me. I've just upgraded from a seven-point-four to a point-eight-four release.
I don't know exactly what was affected. I know that my old default theme is no longer compatible with my publishing system, so I've deactivated it. It's all good, there were some vestigial effects from my old theme which annoyed me and this will give me the chance to correct them. For one, the navigation in the photo gallery sucked. Also, the links vanished due to a white hover color and finally, I hate the font. I really have to figure out what actually happens on that. I love how my site looked in Epiphany on a business card install of Debian. Whatever font that is, I'll hunt it down and use it here. My site is Monochrome Mentality and it will go back to being monochromatic. I hope to correct all of these things within the next 48 hours depending on my mood, time and the ability to get back to theming. We'll see. I'm also going to be adding a new "feature" to the site which will allow me to fall deeper into the realm of digital packratism.
This is just a general "beware" note. The upgrade may have affected how the RSS and Atom feeds are handled so if I'm spamming syndicated readers, I'm sorry. It should calm down and the re-posts were due to the upgrade.
Most importantly, thanks for reading. I've been getting e-mails every now and then from people who like my opinions on one issue or another, and it's great to know. Thanks everyone.
As regular visitors to my site may immediately notice, the theme has changed today. The menus on the sides are faulty too. I know this, please bear with me. I've just upgraded from a seven-point-four to a point-eight-four release.
I don't know exactly what was affected. I know that my old default theme is no longer compatible with my publishing system, so I've deactivated it. It's all good, there were some vestigial effects from my old theme which annoyed me and this will give me the chance to correct them. For one, the navigation in the photo gallery sucked. Also, the links vanished due to a white hover color and finally, I hate the font. I really have to figure out what actually happens on that. I love how my site looked in Epiphany on a business card install of Debian. Whatever font that is, I'll hunt it down and use it here. My site is Monochrome Mentality and it will go back to being monochromatic. I hope to correct all of these things within the next 48 hours depending on my mood, time and the ability to get back to theming. We'll see. I'm also going to be adding a new "feature" to the site which will allow me to fall deeper into the realm of digital packratism.
This is just a general "beware" note. The upgrade may have affected how the RSS and Atom feeds are handled so if I'm spamming syndicated readers, I'm sorry. It should calm down and the re-posts were due to the upgrade.
Most importantly, thanks for reading. I've been getting e-mails every now and then from people who like my opinions on one issue or another, and it's great to know. Thanks everyone.
The Right Kind Of Change
Change.
Carried as a sledgehammer piling through walls, the likes of Barack Obama toss forward "change" and paint pictures of barriers to prosperity crashing down. It's a beautiful mental image really, one I share in fact.
The problem is, change can be good and it can be bad. This isn't a bash on Barack Obama - for all of my disgust at the brand of change he wants, I believe he's thinking the right thing. All that needs is to be shown that the things he wants can be achieved with liberty and freedom. A difficult task, that, but possible. I like to think I've got more hope and faith than he does.
His brand of change is a distraction though. Capitalism versus socialism. Republicans versus democrats. Right-wing versus left wing. It's all a distraction because at it's core, those groups believe the same dangerous lie. They believe that government can solve problems, if we just get the "right guys in there".
Why is this lie dangerous? Because the figure heads mean nothing. Nothing at all.
"The President is the most powerful person in the world! How can you say that!?!" one might ask. It's simple. The people who make things happen, good or bad, are the bureaucrats. Obama might want to tax the rich, but it's the IRS agents who collect the taxes. He might want to ban guns, but it's the police that do the taking. McCain might want to continue the wars in the Middle East, but it's the soldiers who have blood on their hands.
Take for instance the four police officers who beat a driver so badly that he literally needed part of his brain removed to save his life afterwards. Several months later, still remains in a coma. It doesn't matter if the President in office is a Republican or a Democrat when the people "doing the dirty work" believe that the government can and should solve problems. Their solution to "drunk driving" was to slam the man's head into the pavement because he was swerving and not responding to questions. Nevermind the fact that he was diabetic, having a hypoglycemic episode.
Why is the government trying to solve problems a bad thing? Like the police brutality mentioned above, the government's "solutions" essentially come down to theft and violence, every time. If government people want a program, they raise taxes. If you decide you'd rather keep your own money, they react by sending in men with guns. If they don't do that, they fund their programs by printing more money which devalues the money already in circulation and quietly makes people poorer. Stop drunk driver? Men with guns. Stop people from smoking cannabis? Men with guns. Allow smoking in your restaurant? Men with guns. Let your grass grow? Men with guns.
Change.
We need change. But we don't need to change the controllers of a violent system, we need to eliminate the system which is so eager to be violent. "It's the hallmark of a bad idea" says Free Talk Live's Mark Edge, "when to get people to act on it you need to threaten them with force."
Change.
The change needed is to move to voluntary interaction. Wal-mart can convince me to buy their products. Some geeks who write Gnome can convince me to use their software. Honda convinced me to buy their vehicle. Solutions can be found without violence. They can be found by creating incentives for change by giving people benefits if they act of their own volition.
End the violence.
There's change I can believe in.
Carried as a sledgehammer piling through walls, the likes of Barack Obama toss forward "change" and paint pictures of barriers to prosperity crashing down. It's a beautiful mental image really, one I share in fact.
The problem is, change can be good and it can be bad. This isn't a bash on Barack Obama - for all of my disgust at the brand of change he wants, I believe he's thinking the right thing. All that needs is to be shown that the things he wants can be achieved with liberty and freedom. A difficult task, that, but possible. I like to think I've got more hope and faith than he does.
His brand of change is a distraction though. Capitalism versus socialism. Republicans versus democrats. Right-wing versus left wing. It's all a distraction because at it's core, those groups believe the same dangerous lie. They believe that government can solve problems, if we just get the "right guys in there".
Why is this lie dangerous? Because the figure heads mean nothing. Nothing at all.
"The President is the most powerful person in the world! How can you say that!?!" one might ask. It's simple. The people who make things happen, good or bad, are the bureaucrats. Obama might want to tax the rich, but it's the IRS agents who collect the taxes. He might want to ban guns, but it's the police that do the taking. McCain might want to continue the wars in the Middle East, but it's the soldiers who have blood on their hands.
Take for instance the four police officers who beat a driver so badly that he literally needed part of his brain removed to save his life afterwards. Several months later, still remains in a coma. It doesn't matter if the President in office is a Republican or a Democrat when the people "doing the dirty work" believe that the government can and should solve problems. Their solution to "drunk driving" was to slam the man's head into the pavement because he was swerving and not responding to questions. Nevermind the fact that he was diabetic, having a hypoglycemic episode.
Why is the government trying to solve problems a bad thing? Like the police brutality mentioned above, the government's "solutions" essentially come down to theft and violence, every time. If government people want a program, they raise taxes. If you decide you'd rather keep your own money, they react by sending in men with guns. If they don't do that, they fund their programs by printing more money which devalues the money already in circulation and quietly makes people poorer. Stop drunk driver? Men with guns. Stop people from smoking cannabis? Men with guns. Allow smoking in your restaurant? Men with guns. Let your grass grow? Men with guns.
Change.
We need change. But we don't need to change the controllers of a violent system, we need to eliminate the system which is so eager to be violent. "It's the hallmark of a bad idea" says Free Talk Live's Mark Edge, "when to get people to act on it you need to threaten them with force."
Change.
The change needed is to move to voluntary interaction. Wal-mart can convince me to buy their products. Some geeks who write Gnome can convince me to use their software. Honda convinced me to buy their vehicle. Solutions can be found without violence. They can be found by creating incentives for change by giving people benefits if they act of their own volition.
End the violence.
There's change I can believe in.
My needs have changed, so has my distro.
Many, many years ago I abandoned Microsoft Windows and replaced it with various flavors of Linux. It was long ago, when men were men and the differences between distros meant more than the choice of KDE or Gnome, or the default wallpaper.
It was a time when a distro would be made or broken by the ISO you burnt. It was just as likely that your distro of choice would panic and be unable to read your hard drive as it was that it would boot. In that day and age, the idea of an auto-configuring X server (xfree86 then) was insane, and at that time most distros didn't even ship "conservative" configs to get your system running. You were just to setup on for your own system, since it's not too hard.
Boy, have the times changed! Or maybe it's just me. Perhaps it's a combination of both. I know right now that what got me by then doesn't meet my needs today.
One of the first distros in those days to catch my interest was Debian. I don't recall which version of Debian it was, but I do know that it was at the forefront of hardware detection at the time. Debian, Mepis and Linspire (it may have been called Lindows back then, I forget) sharing the same core all worked well. I vaguely recall running Damn Small Linux for a while too, but that's based on Debian too! It was a while before I got to the point where I was able to run Debian "proper" since it required configuration, so I settled on SimplyMepis. I quickly geeked out and moved beyond the hack-a-thon that was Warren Woodford's brainchild and installed Debian myself.
Since then, I've been a Debian fanboy. Debian powers the PC I'm using right now to type this and this PC is located in my company's office. Yes, I'm one of the people able to use Linux at work too. I haven't used Windows for more than checking my Gmail in at least 5 years. Debian powers my home file server. I've even put Debian on my phone once. Debian runs the servers at work that I've deployed and it runs the server that this site is hosted on. Can you tell that I mean what I say when I use the term "fanboy"?
My love of Debian is why when I told some friends I was replacing Debian on my home PC there were rounds of "Yeah, right". But it's true. Debian is not on my home PC at this moment, and it will probably be erased from my work PC later this week. I've already got the ISO ready...
Sometime in my progression, I moved from "liking to tinker" to "needing to have a stable system". It was gradual, because it sort of sneaked up on me when I finally got sick of Debian Sid "breaking" and I moved to the then-frozen Debian Lenny. I liked updates, not a moving platform. I was fine with Lenny for a while. On some occasions, even impressed, especially as the new Moreblue Orbit (Wallpaper and GDM Greeter pictured below) theme moved into it (or maybe I pulled that from Sid at the behest of a friend, I forget...)
This week, Katherine Noyes over at Linux Insider sent me a link and asked for some input on a recent movement by Canonical Ltd. It seems that Mark Shuttleworth has decided to take on Apple. It's not enough to be popular, like Windows, but you have to be good. To advance Linux further, users need to be given something more than a simple clone of Windows. People are leaving Windows for Linux, but they're leaving for Apple too. Mark's goal is to capture those migrations, and inspire more by infusing Linux with some consistency and originality not offered by either Apple or Microsoft.
It all sounds great, and Mark is even tossing money at it to do it. What mattered to me though, was the discussion about this that I ended up having on Libervis about the state of the Linux desktop in general, drives for innovation and change. Our discussion was simple, from "designing good themes" to complex "What would the impact be if Gnome 3.0 was based on Qt 4?"
The conversation really drew things into focus for me. I once dismissed Ubuntu for being "the new distro" and being "over-hyped". More than that, my experiences with it have actually been pretty poor in general. Samba would poll the network forever causing network latencies, applications would crash and act goofy. A year ago, I had every reason to dislike Ubuntu.
Today, not so much. Today, I've got a home PC powered by Ubuntu Intrepid. Why?
1.) My need for stability has become a factor important enough to affect my decisions.2.) I still like the latest and greatest.
On good days, Sid is just fine but on bad days (sometimes lasting a week) I'd get stuck between Gnome 2.20 and Gnome 2.22 and left sorting out all of the breakage caused by that transition. You get goofy migrations in rolling distros, and you get old software in stable ones. For the longest time, I've considered these two things to be at odds. Lenny right now is "new enough" for me to be comfortable using, but will it be that way in 9 months? Probably not, and I'm left with "use old" or "use rolling". Stability wins out now but leaves me unsatisfied. Ubuntu's fast-paced but "snapshot" release cycles meet both. Ubuntu is current but the releases are on a snapshot. I can expect "the latest gnome" to be working, and even if there are updates and changes, I don't have to expect being stuck in-between for much. I get current software with a modicum of stability in the repos and in the software itself. And by the time it begins showing it's "age" and the hype is rising about the next version, I'll have a new release on the horizon.
3.) I like lean systems.
This is something I've always faulted Ubuntu for, having the "kitchen sink" installed. Through a random thought I wondered if it would be possible to install Ubuntu the same way Debian does, from the ground up. Go figure, it can be. Using the Server install with the Alternative disk, I was able to do an encrypted LVM install with a JFS root just like I can on Debian. Ubuntu might hide it's "power" but it doesn't eliminate it. I'm able to install my first choice applications rather than the ones Ubuntu likes most. I don't like Mono so it's not on my system. I can't fathom why Transmission is the default BitTorrent client when Deluge is so nice.
4.) Free Software no longer matters to me.
This transition and realization was probably the first one I made. I posted a blog article when I decided to quit funding the Free Software Foundation. I love freedom and the free market. The principals of the free market and free software go hand in hand - choice, competition, mutual benefit, anti-monopoly, property rights, et cetera. I loved standing for those freedoms and reminding people (mostly users) that their computers are theirs and that they had control.
Unfortunately, it became clear to me that Free Software began meaning less "freedom" and more "my way". Freedom can only come from the minds of sentient individuals. There's no such thing as "collective freedom" and there's no such thing as "freedom by force". Yet to some, like Richard Stallman, the goal became to oppose proprietary software by any means, even using law to prevent people from making their own choices. You can't lead people to freedom by violence, but that's exactly what the Free Software movement had become. I long ago realized that I was only free if I had choices. Knowing the impact of those choices, I've chosen to install non-free software on my systems. Non-free like the nVidia binary driver and Flash from Adobe. I'm aware I'm somewhat restricted so long as I choose to use them, but I'm quite capable of choosing something else (like nouveau or swfdec, respectively) if I don't accept those terms. I am free and the license of the software on my system doesn't affect that.
Yet Debian still clings to that idea. Sure, there's the non-free repo and I truly respect Debian's desire to make the user's choice important. But the simple fact of the matter is, as long as I know what my options are, I don't care what the license of the software on my system is anymore. One of the reasons I used Debian was because of the time and effort they put into making sure that the main repo was 100% Free Software, and while I do love and respect the commitment to principle, those principles no longer mean that much to me.
It should be noted that Ubuntu does focus on Free Software. Everything they write is Free Software and the super vast majority of Ubuntu is free software. The new installer will even have a "Free Software only" option, and Canonical sponsors the development of Gobuntu. What benefit that Ubuntu has is that doesn't give users two degrees of separation from "Ubuntu" and "Non-free".
5.) I like innovation.
As I recapped not so briefly at the start of this article, when I began using Debian it was at the forefront technically. Hardware support on Debian was top notch, creative things were being done, improvements added. This was a different world today. The innovators of yester-decade, Debian and Gentoo, are now "second bests" to the likes of Canonical's Ubuntu and Red Hat's Fedora. This is perhaps the saddest realization but perhaps the best one too, since there's still innovation happening.
As a Debian fanboy, I asked another Debian fanboy friend last night "When was the last time Debian did something "radical"? They used to be amazing for new features, new behind the scenes things (dpkg, defoma) and new presentation. Today, with the release of Etch behind us and the pending release of Lenny, all of the improvements in those two versions came from elsewhere. Meanwhile, Fedora is blazing the trail with integrations of PackageKit, PolicyKit, Pulseaudio. Canonical's Ubuntu team is releasing boot-up optimizations in the likes of Upstart, and before that demonstrated great improvements to Xorg with "Bulletproof X", Windows settings migrations and such. Love the features or not, Fedora and Ubuntu are very much the drivers for change on the software side of things now.
More so, Ubuntu is shipping on Dell computers now. While that doesn't mean much to me as a hardware savvy geek who saves tons by building my own systems, it does mean that Ubuntu is gaining leverage. Developers are using Ubuntu, so developers are developing and packaging for Ubuntu. Software vendors like VMWare and Zimbra are working with Canonical and those tools are being integrated and optimized for use with Ubuntu. That kind of leverage can't be ignored either.
It might be important to point out that both Fedora and Ubuntu, the two distros I'd consider in the vanguard of innovation, share a similar approach. Both distros release on a similar 6 month cycle, but more than that, both distros have a goal oriented approach to releases. Fedora's list of goals for the upcoming Fedora 10 release include things like "Enhance support for HDTVs" and "Improve management and handling of printers". Likewise, Ubuntu has announced "There are some specific goals that we need to meet in Jaunty. One of
them is boot time. We want Ubuntu to boot as fast as possible..." and "Another goal is the the blurring of web services and desktop applications." A results-oriented approach seems to be key in providing new features and creative ways of using new tools to improve existing features.
In closing, I still love Debian. It will be running my servers for quite a while and for architectures not based on i386 or AMD64, Debian's wide support for those architectures make it a fine choice. Debian package maintainers are glorious folks who labor over their packages to make them work well and they show a level of quality unmatched in the Linux world. This isn't a Debian sucks rant, and shouldn't be taken as such.
This is about my needs and wants as a desktop user and while I'm sad to see that Debian is no longer meeting my needs, I'm quite happy that I've got enough options and that there's now even something better.
It was a time when a distro would be made or broken by the ISO you burnt. It was just as likely that your distro of choice would panic and be unable to read your hard drive as it was that it would boot. In that day and age, the idea of an auto-configuring X server (xfree86 then) was insane, and at that time most distros didn't even ship "conservative" configs to get your system running. You were just to setup on for your own system, since it's not too hard.
Boy, have the times changed! Or maybe it's just me. Perhaps it's a combination of both. I know right now that what got me by then doesn't meet my needs today.
One of the first distros in those days to catch my interest was Debian. I don't recall which version of Debian it was, but I do know that it was at the forefront of hardware detection at the time. Debian, Mepis and Linspire (it may have been called Lindows back then, I forget) sharing the same core all worked well. I vaguely recall running Damn Small Linux for a while too, but that's based on Debian too! It was a while before I got to the point where I was able to run Debian "proper" since it required configuration, so I settled on SimplyMepis. I quickly geeked out and moved beyond the hack-a-thon that was Warren Woodford's brainchild and installed Debian myself.
Since then, I've been a Debian fanboy. Debian powers the PC I'm using right now to type this and this PC is located in my company's office. Yes, I'm one of the people able to use Linux at work too. I haven't used Windows for more than checking my Gmail in at least 5 years. Debian powers my home file server. I've even put Debian on my phone once. Debian runs the servers at work that I've deployed and it runs the server that this site is hosted on. Can you tell that I mean what I say when I use the term "fanboy"?
My love of Debian is why when I told some friends I was replacing Debian on my home PC there were rounds of "Yeah, right". But it's true. Debian is not on my home PC at this moment, and it will probably be erased from my work PC later this week. I've already got the ISO ready...
Sometime in my progression, I moved from "liking to tinker" to "needing to have a stable system". It was gradual, because it sort of sneaked up on me when I finally got sick of Debian Sid "breaking" and I moved to the then-frozen Debian Lenny. I liked updates, not a moving platform. I was fine with Lenny for a while. On some occasions, even impressed, especially as the new Moreblue Orbit (Wallpaper and GDM Greeter pictured below) theme moved into it (or maybe I pulled that from Sid at the behest of a friend, I forget...)
This week, Katherine Noyes over at Linux Insider sent me a link and asked for some input on a recent movement by Canonical Ltd. It seems that Mark Shuttleworth has decided to take on Apple. It's not enough to be popular, like Windows, but you have to be good. To advance Linux further, users need to be given something more than a simple clone of Windows. People are leaving Windows for Linux, but they're leaving for Apple too. Mark's goal is to capture those migrations, and inspire more by infusing Linux with some consistency and originality not offered by either Apple or Microsoft.
It all sounds great, and Mark is even tossing money at it to do it. What mattered to me though, was the discussion about this that I ended up having on Libervis about the state of the Linux desktop in general, drives for innovation and change. Our discussion was simple, from "designing good themes" to complex "What would the impact be if Gnome 3.0 was based on Qt 4?"
The conversation really drew things into focus for me. I once dismissed Ubuntu for being "the new distro" and being "over-hyped". More than that, my experiences with it have actually been pretty poor in general. Samba would poll the network forever causing network latencies, applications would crash and act goofy. A year ago, I had every reason to dislike Ubuntu.
Today, not so much. Today, I've got a home PC powered by Ubuntu Intrepid. Why?
1.) My need for stability has become a factor important enough to affect my decisions.2.) I still like the latest and greatest.
On good days, Sid is just fine but on bad days (sometimes lasting a week) I'd get stuck between Gnome 2.20 and Gnome 2.22 and left sorting out all of the breakage caused by that transition. You get goofy migrations in rolling distros, and you get old software in stable ones. For the longest time, I've considered these two things to be at odds. Lenny right now is "new enough" for me to be comfortable using, but will it be that way in 9 months? Probably not, and I'm left with "use old" or "use rolling". Stability wins out now but leaves me unsatisfied. Ubuntu's fast-paced but "snapshot" release cycles meet both. Ubuntu is current but the releases are on a snapshot. I can expect "the latest gnome" to be working, and even if there are updates and changes, I don't have to expect being stuck in-between for much. I get current software with a modicum of stability in the repos and in the software itself. And by the time it begins showing it's "age" and the hype is rising about the next version, I'll have a new release on the horizon.
3.) I like lean systems.
This is something I've always faulted Ubuntu for, having the "kitchen sink" installed. Through a random thought I wondered if it would be possible to install Ubuntu the same way Debian does, from the ground up. Go figure, it can be. Using the Server install with the Alternative disk, I was able to do an encrypted LVM install with a JFS root just like I can on Debian. Ubuntu might hide it's "power" but it doesn't eliminate it. I'm able to install my first choice applications rather than the ones Ubuntu likes most. I don't like Mono so it's not on my system. I can't fathom why Transmission is the default BitTorrent client when Deluge is so nice.
4.) Free Software no longer matters to me.
This transition and realization was probably the first one I made. I posted a blog article when I decided to quit funding the Free Software Foundation. I love freedom and the free market. The principals of the free market and free software go hand in hand - choice, competition, mutual benefit, anti-monopoly, property rights, et cetera. I loved standing for those freedoms and reminding people (mostly users) that their computers are theirs and that they had control.
Unfortunately, it became clear to me that Free Software began meaning less "freedom" and more "my way". Freedom can only come from the minds of sentient individuals. There's no such thing as "collective freedom" and there's no such thing as "freedom by force". Yet to some, like Richard Stallman, the goal became to oppose proprietary software by any means, even using law to prevent people from making their own choices. You can't lead people to freedom by violence, but that's exactly what the Free Software movement had become. I long ago realized that I was only free if I had choices. Knowing the impact of those choices, I've chosen to install non-free software on my systems. Non-free like the nVidia binary driver and Flash from Adobe. I'm aware I'm somewhat restricted so long as I choose to use them, but I'm quite capable of choosing something else (like nouveau or swfdec, respectively) if I don't accept those terms. I am free and the license of the software on my system doesn't affect that.
Yet Debian still clings to that idea. Sure, there's the non-free repo and I truly respect Debian's desire to make the user's choice important. But the simple fact of the matter is, as long as I know what my options are, I don't care what the license of the software on my system is anymore. One of the reasons I used Debian was because of the time and effort they put into making sure that the main repo was 100% Free Software, and while I do love and respect the commitment to principle, those principles no longer mean that much to me.
It should be noted that Ubuntu does focus on Free Software. Everything they write is Free Software and the super vast majority of Ubuntu is free software. The new installer will even have a "Free Software only" option, and Canonical sponsors the development of Gobuntu. What benefit that Ubuntu has is that doesn't give users two degrees of separation from "Ubuntu" and "Non-free".
5.) I like innovation.
As I recapped not so briefly at the start of this article, when I began using Debian it was at the forefront technically. Hardware support on Debian was top notch, creative things were being done, improvements added. This was a different world today. The innovators of yester-decade, Debian and Gentoo, are now "second bests" to the likes of Canonical's Ubuntu and Red Hat's Fedora. This is perhaps the saddest realization but perhaps the best one too, since there's still innovation happening.
As a Debian fanboy, I asked another Debian fanboy friend last night "When was the last time Debian did something "radical"? They used to be amazing for new features, new behind the scenes things (dpkg, defoma) and new presentation. Today, with the release of Etch behind us and the pending release of Lenny, all of the improvements in those two versions came from elsewhere. Meanwhile, Fedora is blazing the trail with integrations of PackageKit, PolicyKit, Pulseaudio. Canonical's Ubuntu team is releasing boot-up optimizations in the likes of Upstart, and before that demonstrated great improvements to Xorg with "Bulletproof X", Windows settings migrations and such. Love the features or not, Fedora and Ubuntu are very much the drivers for change on the software side of things now.
More so, Ubuntu is shipping on Dell computers now. While that doesn't mean much to me as a hardware savvy geek who saves tons by building my own systems, it does mean that Ubuntu is gaining leverage. Developers are using Ubuntu, so developers are developing and packaging for Ubuntu. Software vendors like VMWare and Zimbra are working with Canonical and those tools are being integrated and optimized for use with Ubuntu. That kind of leverage can't be ignored either.
It might be important to point out that both Fedora and Ubuntu, the two distros I'd consider in the vanguard of innovation, share a similar approach. Both distros release on a similar 6 month cycle, but more than that, both distros have a goal oriented approach to releases. Fedora's list of goals for the upcoming Fedora 10 release include things like "Enhance support for HDTVs" and "Improve management and handling of printers". Likewise, Ubuntu has announced "There are some specific goals that we need to meet in Jaunty. One of
them is boot time. We want Ubuntu to boot as fast as possible..." and "Another goal is the the blurring of web services and desktop applications." A results-oriented approach seems to be key in providing new features and creative ways of using new tools to improve existing features.
In closing, I still love Debian. It will be running my servers for quite a while and for architectures not based on i386 or AMD64, Debian's wide support for those architectures make it a fine choice. Debian package maintainers are glorious folks who labor over their packages to make them work well and they show a level of quality unmatched in the Linux world. This isn't a Debian sucks rant, and shouldn't be taken as such.
This is about my needs and wants as a desktop user and while I'm sad to see that Debian is no longer meeting my needs, I'm quite happy that I've got enough options and that there's now even something better.
NewEgg.com Might Be Doing Civil Disobedience And I Support Them!
I believe firmly that taxes are theft. I am also a geek/hacker/activist. So when two of my favorite things (namely computers and non-co-operational civil disobedience) are blended together, I make sure I'm shouting the news from the rooftops.
NewEgg.com, one of (if not) the most popular computer equipment websites on the planet may be engaging in non-cooperative tax civil disobedience.
A controversial law that passed in thebelly of the beast Empire State, dubbed the Amazon Tax, requires sellers with "affiliates" in New York to collect sales tax on items shipped into the state. This means an end to the largely untaxed internet shopping, at least for New Yorkers. The ugly problem with this is that greedy government people take ideas from the books of other greedy government people and this kind of thing spreads.
Of course, NewEgg might actually not be engaged in civil disobedience. It's possible they're remitting the taxes to the people making threats and calling themselves "State of New York" and simply eating this as a cost of doing business. I'm not exactly sure what my take is on that, frankly. To some, it might seems as if NewEgg is actually discounting the purchase price of items to New Yorkers (which would suck). On the other hand, the mere appearance of tax resistance might stimulate and encourage other businesses to resist taxes.
My word of caution to NewEgg and anyone that might be "eating the costs" of the New York tax - if you pay them the money other states will begin levying similar taxes. While it's one state, you can eat the costs, but are you willing to do that if 20 states adopt this kind of tax? Would you answer the same if it 40?
If you object to the tax because it eats your profits, stand and resist it! If you object to the tax because you think it's theft, stand and resist it! If you object to the tax because it adds complexity for your customers, stand and resist it! Stand and resist it, and I promise you, you'll not stand alone!
If you're happy that NewEgg has decided to take this stance, please use their contact form and tell them you support them. I've already sent the following message:
I would seriously like to thank NewEgg.com and all of the staff behind the idea to refuse to collect New York sales tax. Frankly, I would say "This will bring my business to you" but I am already a loyal customer when making corporate and personal purchases. I am an voluntaryist and free marketeer. I consider taxes of ALL kinds to be theft and I firmly support non-compliance as a means to affect societal change. You guys are all awesome, and I will continue to recommend you to friends!
NewEgg.com, one of (if not) the most popular computer equipment websites on the planet may be engaging in non-cooperative tax civil disobedience.
A controversial law that passed in the
Of course, NewEgg might actually not be engaged in civil disobedience. It's possible they're remitting the taxes to the people making threats and calling themselves "State of New York" and simply eating this as a cost of doing business. I'm not exactly sure what my take is on that, frankly. To some, it might seems as if NewEgg is actually discounting the purchase price of items to New Yorkers (which would suck). On the other hand, the mere appearance of tax resistance might stimulate and encourage other businesses to resist taxes.
My word of caution to NewEgg and anyone that might be "eating the costs" of the New York tax - if you pay them the money other states will begin levying similar taxes. While it's one state, you can eat the costs, but are you willing to do that if 20 states adopt this kind of tax? Would you answer the same if it 40?
If you object to the tax because it eats your profits, stand and resist it! If you object to the tax because you think it's theft, stand and resist it! If you object to the tax because it adds complexity for your customers, stand and resist it! Stand and resist it, and I promise you, you'll not stand alone!
If you're happy that NewEgg has decided to take this stance, please use their contact form and tell them you support them. I've already sent the following message:
I would seriously like to thank NewEgg.com and all of the staff behind the idea to refuse to collect New York sales tax. Frankly, I would say "This will bring my business to you" but I am already a loyal customer when making corporate and personal purchases. I am an voluntaryist and free marketeer. I consider taxes of ALL kinds to be theft and I firmly support non-compliance as a means to affect societal change. You guys are all awesome, and I will continue to recommend you to friends!
-Kevin Dean
Regroup and refocus or risk getting lost
It's 10:40 pm and I'm sipping an RC Cola trying to get a hit of caffeine. My back is tired from carrying a basket of dirty laundry to the end of the block and I'm wiping sweat from my brow. It's obvious from my physique that I hate work.
In fact, I'm already a day behind. Laundry is a Sunday evening chore for me but somehow I managed to beg and plead into postponing it a day yesterday just so I'd not have to do it. The problem with procrastination is that it eventually catches up to you.
Why am I blogging about chores? Isn't it obvious, I hate work! Or... do I?
The past few months I've been growing more and more cynical. I don't know if it's my sense of empathy that simply won't "let things go" or if it's more, as my wife suspects, that I am not really sure what would make me happy. In her eyes, there's a void in me, an emptiness that I'm aware of but not sure how to fill. To her, I'm making busy work all day, every day, to fill this void.
She might be right.
I'm still critical of the government. It's hard to recognize this massive group of violent people and then just shrug it off. It's hard to see the ripple effects caused by those people's suppression of other people; the wealth destroyed, the potential unmet.
I've spent every waking moment the past few months thinking about those things. About moving to New Hampshire as part of the Free State Project and working to cast off the "chains of government". I chat on the Libervis Network about it, talk to my receptive co-workers about it, write letters to the Social Security people telling them "I'm done" and it makes me feel strong and powerful and alive and in control.
In all of that, though, I think I may have lost sight of something. Something very important. My goal.
I tell myself I don't like work, and maybe I really don't, but somehow I've managed to make that "work" an all consuming desire and forgotten that the work isn't the objective, but simply a goal to having a better life. Sometimes music is just beats and tunes but sometimes it manages to hit the nail on the head so perfectly that it can describe a feeling perfectly.
"So can you tell me what exactly does freedom mean,
If I'm not free to be as twisted as I wanna be
Don't wanna be another player losing in this game
I'm trying to impress upon you
We're not the same"
I'm going to be taking a little bit of time over the next period of X (X being "the amount of time I need") to focus on the positivity that is already in my life, and refocus on just why it is that I need to work and correct the things I see wrong in the world. Hopefully, I can remind others to do the same as well. Don't focus so hard on the process that you lose sight of the objective. Voluntaryism is all about the recognition that the super-majority of interaction already happens voluntarily and that interaction is good. Why then, when it's mostly good, do we obsess with the small minority that is not?
"Be the change you want to see". I want to be someone who is free. To do that, I must act. To be free, I need to move past the "not there yet" and focus on the "mostly there". Not doing that will make me crazy and crazy activist just aren't effective.
In fact, I'm already a day behind. Laundry is a Sunday evening chore for me but somehow I managed to beg and plead into postponing it a day yesterday just so I'd not have to do it. The problem with procrastination is that it eventually catches up to you.
Why am I blogging about chores? Isn't it obvious, I hate work! Or... do I?
The past few months I've been growing more and more cynical. I don't know if it's my sense of empathy that simply won't "let things go" or if it's more, as my wife suspects, that I am not really sure what would make me happy. In her eyes, there's a void in me, an emptiness that I'm aware of but not sure how to fill. To her, I'm making busy work all day, every day, to fill this void.
She might be right.
I'm still critical of the government. It's hard to recognize this massive group of violent people and then just shrug it off. It's hard to see the ripple effects caused by those people's suppression of other people; the wealth destroyed, the potential unmet.
I've spent every waking moment the past few months thinking about those things. About moving to New Hampshire as part of the Free State Project and working to cast off the "chains of government". I chat on the Libervis Network about it, talk to my receptive co-workers about it, write letters to the Social Security people telling them "I'm done" and it makes me feel strong and powerful and alive and in control.
In all of that, though, I think I may have lost sight of something. Something very important. My goal.
I tell myself I don't like work, and maybe I really don't, but somehow I've managed to make that "work" an all consuming desire and forgotten that the work isn't the objective, but simply a goal to having a better life. Sometimes music is just beats and tunes but sometimes it manages to hit the nail on the head so perfectly that it can describe a feeling perfectly.
"So can you tell me what exactly does freedom mean,
If I'm not free to be as twisted as I wanna be
Don't wanna be another player losing in this game
I'm trying to impress upon you
We're not the same"
I'm going to be taking a little bit of time over the next period of X (X being "the amount of time I need") to focus on the positivity that is already in my life, and refocus on just why it is that I need to work and correct the things I see wrong in the world. Hopefully, I can remind others to do the same as well. Don't focus so hard on the process that you lose sight of the objective. Voluntaryism is all about the recognition that the super-majority of interaction already happens voluntarily and that interaction is good. Why then, when it's mostly good, do we obsess with the small minority that is not?
"Be the change you want to see". I want to be someone who is free. To do that, I must act. To be free, I need to move past the "not there yet" and focus on the "mostly there". Not doing that will make me crazy and crazy activist just aren't effective.
FSO Milestone II Photo Safari and rant
In the spirit of the ASU Photo Tour, I've decided to do a little collection of images for the FSO image which is built on the FreeSmartphone.Orgframework.
Let me first get some weight off my chest. I've been feeling burnt out by Openmoko since the end of June when some confusion was cleared up about the ASU, the FSO and in general, the direction of the software for Openmoko devices.
I'm going to toss around some acronyms and a new title to think about. The ASU was a proof-of-concept image that combined Qtopia, Enlightenment and GTK running on top of Xorg. This first image was built (I'm told) by rasterman by hand and that issues would be worked on until August, when a first "functional" image would be released. ASU, then, means April/August Software Update. Either month works just fine - the first image was released in April, the result slated for release in August.
To address the confusion, that software line is now Openmoko 2008.08 so "ASU" and 2008.08 are the same thing for the most part. With me? Good, let's move on.
When the ASU was announced, two other things happened. The GTK based 2007.02 line was obsoleted (or some might argue deprecated since it's now getting attention from the community) and the FSO Framework was announced. I'll focus on the framework, because it's where my complaints and burnout centered around.
The ASU and Framework were announced at roughly the same time. To the community it appeared as if Sean Moss-Pultz had pulled a decision out of his ass to abandon the software that people knew and go with Qtopia instead. This decision appeared to be arbitrary and sudden, leaving a lot of questions unanswered. Frankly, it left a lot of questions unasked, because this move was so radical and sudden. The biggest unanswered question was I want to develop an app for Freerunner, what should I start with? This is when the Framework was revealed by Mickey Lauer.
Perhaps this was too big of a leap, but from then on it appeared as if the ASU and the Framework were complimentary projects within Openmoko. The end result of both projects would be to develop dbus based services and signaling and adapt the Qtopia applications to use this system. As I reasoned, ASU focused on the userspace apps and the Framework would focus on the back-end and the merger of those two would be the "mass market" software Openmoko would ship on average-Joe ready devices. The future looked promising, and I was among one of the most vocal people in regard to this.
On 28 June 2008, Mickey Lauer posted again, making it pretty clear my assumptions were wrong. The Framework would not be merged into the ASU line to be shipped to customers. If the two were to merge, it would be by community support.
Frankly, after the disappointing abandonment of the Neo 1973 device, the sudden shift from one development line to another, the horrible communication about the aim and directive of the "official" and general all around cluster-fuckery that is Openmoko I began to loose faith in the project. I know I'm not alone in that regard, because within 24 hours of feeling I'd been hoodwinked, the SHR project was announced. While it may not have been the "fork heard 'round the world" it was a significant point, because I think there the camel's back snapped.
Allow me to take a moment to give my impression about the other side too. I mentioned above that the general opinion was that Sean Moss-Pultz issued a directive to begin adopting Qtopia and that it was contrary to the aims of Openmoko. Now, I don't know since I'm not in regular communication with him (the times we've exchanged e-mails have been polite and to the point) but I suspect the issue is deeper than that. From reading Sean's blog posts and mailing list messages, I think the man is committed to open platforms and more than that, the power that leveraging those platforms gives to users. I think he truly cares about Openmoko's goals. On the flip side, he's also the CEO of a company and in that respect, his job is to ensure that Openmoko turns a profit. Furthermore, while he wears the title "Chief Executive Officer" there's nothing chief about his position if it's anything like other companies. The financiers, investors, venture capitalists and shareholders (if it's public) are the real chiefs. Speaking bluntly, I suspect that those people started getting freaked out by the Freerunner "delay". The media had long moved on and the term "vaporware" began floating around in regard to Openmoko and I'm sure this made the investor squeamish.
Sean had a choice then. In order to see his goal happen, he needs to compromise. To continue building and selling open platforms to people, Openmoko would need to make their first platform profitable to please the investors. That platform might not see the light of day unless they could be convinced that Openmoko could begin turning profit quickly. With the GTK based software showing problems, some architecturally, the decision was to either rebuild a boat mid-voyage or hop on that shiny ocean liner next to you.
I don't fault Sean for making that call. I fault the investors who decided to dump money into a project and then didn't allow the vision to be pushed forward. If they wanted to back an open platform, they should let the people making open platforms do what they need to meet that goal. If they wanted to back a company shipping phones that were nothing special, they should have done that.
It wasn't the one decision alone that hurt the project though. Openmoko is open. The first time this hurt Openmoko was with Freerunner. When Freerunner was conceptualized and discussed, the media (even open source centric media) stuck to their traditions and speculated that "Freerunner will be an iPhone killer". The problem with talking about your products is that nobody is used to companies talking about their products before they're in warehouses, awaiting some magical signal to roll out to customers. So while it was pretty clear to someone who thinks critically, a lot of people saw the Freerunner as being "delayed". There was also the "developer" and "mass market" confusion - even as the Freerunner was shipping, people didn't understand that there were two markets, and two release dates, for the device. Of course, I get the impression that even this might actually have changed, instead to focus a smaller run on "niche markets" like universities and specialty vendors and aim the next product more broadly, but this isn't confirmed for me. But I digress.
Openmoko is trying to walk the balance between being open and being effective. How do you talk about plans about future dazzling products and (a year or 18 months later) ship a product that STILL dazzles people? How do you market a product as meeting people's needs when the product is designed to not assume to know the user's needs and be flexible enough to still fill them? Openmoko hasn't mastered it and it's caused some backlash, but nobody else is doing the same thing better. In some ways, it's a gigantic experiment.
As I sat down to write all that, I planned on it being a small post and then jumping right into the pictures of the FSO, but it turned out filling up two (going on three) pages in OpenOffice Writer, but it feels good to have put the feelings into words. With that, let's move onward, and look at what the FSO Framework has to offer.
Meet Zhone.
Zhone is a very basic program designed to demonstrate the capabilities of the Framework backend systems. As an added bonus it looks spiffy. I don't have a working SIM inserted in this image, so you can't see the network I'm connected to or signal strength but these features normally exist and can be seen in later images.
For a moment, we'll ignore the irony of the icon selection. I'm a married man with a professional career and other than ones in use for the purpose of having a rotary phone in use, I've not seen one in the wild. Yet in my hands to take this screenshot was a device that has substantially more computing power than a Game Boy Advance, which itself has substantially more computing power than all of NASA Mission Control when they placed a human being on the moon. Let's ignore this and click the phone icon, shall we?
At the top you can see two bars, one blue and one green. The blue bar represents cellular signal strength and above it displays the carrier message. This SIM works, but is not active, so can only be used for emergency calls so displays "SOS Only".
To the right is a green bar, displaying battery strength. In all honesty, I'm not sure what the letters above that bar indicate, but I'm sure that I'll get that information soon after this post is public. If you're terribly interested, check back later or leave a comment with an e-mail address (doesn't require registration, that bugs the hell out of me!) and I'll send you a message once I know for sure.
Got it already. :) They stand for Bluetooth, GSM, WLAN and GPS, respectively. Small letters indicate "turned off", capital letters are for "turned on". Thanks for pointing this out wurp!
Below that is the dialer display and keypad. The back arrow deletes and the big green check enters the number. The smaller arrows, as well as the bottom row of icons do nothing, except for the "X" which exits the dialer.
The next section well look at include the messaging features.
The forward, delete and reply buttons simply drop me back at the main screen. I'm assuming this is because I have no SMS messages but it could be unimplemented features. I have a strong hunch that they work. In the Milestone 1 release, unimplemented features were clearly marked as such.
Clicking on the "Send" button brings up a selection screen where you pick your contact, touch the bar for that contact and are presented with a message compose screen.
I had to censor the first image because it contained phone numbers. The nifty thing about this is that it actually imported them from the SIM card automagically.
Contacts management is the next feature of Zhone to explore. Like the SMS section, you're presented with a menu to select your action, including "Edit Name", "Edit Number" and "new". I elected to do each of those for illustrative purposes and use random keypad presses for the number.
The final portion of Zhone is something GPS related. This does nothing for me as of yet, but I wanted to show it anyway.
Exiting Zhone is easy since Illume is installed and functional. First is the ASU launcher with a light blue hue as icons are selected. The next image is a screenshot of the screenshot application to show that GTK works but looks ugly unthemed, but I'm sure that's not really in dispute.
It's been a while since I've seen the keyboard in action, and it's improved quite a bit. I'm not sure if this is a FSO improvement or done to Illume directly, but it makes the Freerunner quite a bit more functional. There's several modes now, including a full QWERTY mode which can be selected. The great news is that it's actually terminal capable!
A few new images that didn't make it onto this page can be found in my Openmoko Image Gallery including a possible bug (the keyboard selection menu doesn't close if the keyboard does) but all told the "interesting" stuff made it's way here.
What can't be put in a photo collection is stability. None, and I do repeat none, of the apps crashed. Suspend and resume are actually working reliably on the Freerunner with a press of the power button for each. The AUX button puts the device into lock mode. My only complaint is that the lock mode still accepts screen presses, meaning that to put the device in a purse or a pocket it needs to be fully suspended else it runs the risk of powering up and down the backlite as keys and spare change collide with it.
All in all, there's promising progress from all different fronts and it's rapidly rekindling my desire to get involved and take control of my phone. Now... Where do I find a good media player...
Let me first get some weight off my chest. I've been feeling burnt out by Openmoko since the end of June when some confusion was cleared up about the ASU, the FSO and in general, the direction of the software for Openmoko devices.
I'm going to toss around some acronyms and a new title to think about. The ASU was a proof-of-concept image that combined Qtopia, Enlightenment and GTK running on top of Xorg. This first image was built (I'm told) by rasterman by hand and that issues would be worked on until August, when a first "functional" image would be released. ASU, then, means April/August Software Update. Either month works just fine - the first image was released in April, the result slated for release in August.
To address the confusion, that software line is now Openmoko 2008.08 so "ASU" and 2008.08 are the same thing for the most part. With me? Good, let's move on.
When the ASU was announced, two other things happened. The GTK based 2007.02 line was obsoleted (or some might argue deprecated since it's now getting attention from the community) and the FSO Framework was announced. I'll focus on the framework, because it's where my complaints and burnout centered around.
The ASU and Framework were announced at roughly the same time. To the community it appeared as if Sean Moss-Pultz had pulled a decision out of his ass to abandon the software that people knew and go with Qtopia instead. This decision appeared to be arbitrary and sudden, leaving a lot of questions unanswered. Frankly, it left a lot of questions unasked, because this move was so radical and sudden. The biggest unanswered question was I want to develop an app for Freerunner, what should I start with? This is when the Framework was revealed by Mickey Lauer.
Perhaps this was too big of a leap, but from then on it appeared as if the ASU and the Framework were complimentary projects within Openmoko. The end result of both projects would be to develop dbus based services and signaling and adapt the Qtopia applications to use this system. As I reasoned, ASU focused on the userspace apps and the Framework would focus on the back-end and the merger of those two would be the "mass market" software Openmoko would ship on average-Joe ready devices. The future looked promising, and I was among one of the most vocal people in regard to this.
On 28 June 2008, Mickey Lauer posted again, making it pretty clear my assumptions were wrong. The Framework would not be merged into the ASU line to be shipped to customers. If the two were to merge, it would be by community support.
Frankly, after the disappointing abandonment of the Neo 1973 device, the sudden shift from one development line to another, the horrible communication about the aim and directive of the "official" and general all around cluster-fuckery that is Openmoko I began to loose faith in the project. I know I'm not alone in that regard, because within 24 hours of feeling I'd been hoodwinked, the SHR project was announced. While it may not have been the "fork heard 'round the world" it was a significant point, because I think there the camel's back snapped.
Allow me to take a moment to give my impression about the other side too. I mentioned above that the general opinion was that Sean Moss-Pultz issued a directive to begin adopting Qtopia and that it was contrary to the aims of Openmoko. Now, I don't know since I'm not in regular communication with him (the times we've exchanged e-mails have been polite and to the point) but I suspect the issue is deeper than that. From reading Sean's blog posts and mailing list messages, I think the man is committed to open platforms and more than that, the power that leveraging those platforms gives to users. I think he truly cares about Openmoko's goals. On the flip side, he's also the CEO of a company and in that respect, his job is to ensure that Openmoko turns a profit. Furthermore, while he wears the title "Chief Executive Officer" there's nothing chief about his position if it's anything like other companies. The financiers, investors, venture capitalists and shareholders (if it's public) are the real chiefs. Speaking bluntly, I suspect that those people started getting freaked out by the Freerunner "delay". The media had long moved on and the term "vaporware" began floating around in regard to Openmoko and I'm sure this made the investor squeamish.
Sean had a choice then. In order to see his goal happen, he needs to compromise. To continue building and selling open platforms to people, Openmoko would need to make their first platform profitable to please the investors. That platform might not see the light of day unless they could be convinced that Openmoko could begin turning profit quickly. With the GTK based software showing problems, some architecturally, the decision was to either rebuild a boat mid-voyage or hop on that shiny ocean liner next to you.
I don't fault Sean for making that call. I fault the investors who decided to dump money into a project and then didn't allow the vision to be pushed forward. If they wanted to back an open platform, they should let the people making open platforms do what they need to meet that goal. If they wanted to back a company shipping phones that were nothing special, they should have done that.
It wasn't the one decision alone that hurt the project though. Openmoko is open. The first time this hurt Openmoko was with Freerunner. When Freerunner was conceptualized and discussed, the media (even open source centric media) stuck to their traditions and speculated that "Freerunner will be an iPhone killer". The problem with talking about your products is that nobody is used to companies talking about their products before they're in warehouses, awaiting some magical signal to roll out to customers. So while it was pretty clear to someone who thinks critically, a lot of people saw the Freerunner as being "delayed". There was also the "developer" and "mass market" confusion - even as the Freerunner was shipping, people didn't understand that there were two markets, and two release dates, for the device. Of course, I get the impression that even this might actually have changed, instead to focus a smaller run on "niche markets" like universities and specialty vendors and aim the next product more broadly, but this isn't confirmed for me. But I digress.
Openmoko is trying to walk the balance between being open and being effective. How do you talk about plans about future dazzling products and (a year or 18 months later) ship a product that STILL dazzles people? How do you market a product as meeting people's needs when the product is designed to not assume to know the user's needs and be flexible enough to still fill them? Openmoko hasn't mastered it and it's caused some backlash, but nobody else is doing the same thing better. In some ways, it's a gigantic experiment.
As I sat down to write all that, I planned on it being a small post and then jumping right into the pictures of the FSO, but it turned out filling up two (going on three) pages in OpenOffice Writer, but it feels good to have put the feelings into words. With that, let's move onward, and look at what the FSO Framework has to offer.
Meet Zhone.
Zhone is a very basic program designed to demonstrate the capabilities of the Framework backend systems. As an added bonus it looks spiffy. I don't have a working SIM inserted in this image, so you can't see the network I'm connected to or signal strength but these features normally exist and can be seen in later images.
For a moment, we'll ignore the irony of the icon selection. I'm a married man with a professional career and other than ones in use for the purpose of having a rotary phone in use, I've not seen one in the wild. Yet in my hands to take this screenshot was a device that has substantially more computing power than a Game Boy Advance, which itself has substantially more computing power than all of NASA Mission Control when they placed a human being on the moon. Let's ignore this and click the phone icon, shall we?
At the top you can see two bars, one blue and one green. The blue bar represents cellular signal strength and above it displays the carrier message. This SIM works, but is not active, so can only be used for emergency calls so displays "SOS Only".
To the right is a green bar, displaying battery strength. In all honesty, I'm not sure what the letters above that bar indicate, but I'm sure that I'll get that information soon after this post is public. If you're terribly interested, check back later or leave a comment with an e-mail address (doesn't require registration, that bugs the hell out of me!) and I'll send you a message once I know for sure.
Got it already. :) They stand for Bluetooth, GSM, WLAN and GPS, respectively. Small letters indicate "turned off", capital letters are for "turned on". Thanks for pointing this out wurp!
Below that is the dialer display and keypad. The back arrow deletes and the big green check enters the number. The smaller arrows, as well as the bottom row of icons do nothing, except for the "X" which exits the dialer.
The next section well look at include the messaging features.
The forward, delete and reply buttons simply drop me back at the main screen. I'm assuming this is because I have no SMS messages but it could be unimplemented features. I have a strong hunch that they work. In the Milestone 1 release, unimplemented features were clearly marked as such.
Clicking on the "Send" button brings up a selection screen where you pick your contact, touch the bar for that contact and are presented with a message compose screen.
I had to censor the first image because it contained phone numbers. The nifty thing about this is that it actually imported them from the SIM card automagically.
Contacts management is the next feature of Zhone to explore. Like the SMS section, you're presented with a menu to select your action, including "Edit Name", "Edit Number" and "new". I elected to do each of those for illustrative purposes and use random keypad presses for the number.
The final portion of Zhone is something GPS related. This does nothing for me as of yet, but I wanted to show it anyway.
Exiting Zhone is easy since Illume is installed and functional. First is the ASU launcher with a light blue hue as icons are selected. The next image is a screenshot of the screenshot application to show that GTK works but looks ugly unthemed, but I'm sure that's not really in dispute.
It's been a while since I've seen the keyboard in action, and it's improved quite a bit. I'm not sure if this is a FSO improvement or done to Illume directly, but it makes the Freerunner quite a bit more functional. There's several modes now, including a full QWERTY mode which can be selected. The great news is that it's actually terminal capable!
A few new images that didn't make it onto this page can be found in my Openmoko Image Gallery including a possible bug (the keyboard selection menu doesn't close if the keyboard does) but all told the "interesting" stuff made it's way here.
What can't be put in a photo collection is stability. None, and I do repeat none, of the apps crashed. Suspend and resume are actually working reliably on the Freerunner with a press of the power button for each. The AUX button puts the device into lock mode. My only complaint is that the lock mode still accepts screen presses, meaning that to put the device in a purse or a pocket it needs to be fully suspended else it runs the risk of powering up and down the backlite as keys and spare change collide with it.
All in all, there's promising progress from all different fronts and it's rapidly rekindling my desire to get involved and take control of my phone. Now... Where do I find a good media player...
People in this area set insane prices on used goods
I grew up in Michigan, moved to Kentucky and then moved out to the Washington DC metro area a few years back. One thing that bugged me when I first moved out what "resale value".
People out here have really messed up notions of resale value. Used items are actually supposed to be cheaper than new items from online resellers because, well, they're used.
I love the market, and you're welcome to charge as much for your crap as you want but understand that charging more than market price is why you won't get my money.
Except for that guy I bought my kegerator from last year - thank you! That was an awesome deal, but I feel bad because I think your new wife forced you into that deal.
Everyone else, your prices suck.
People out here have really messed up notions of resale value. Used items are actually supposed to be cheaper than new items from online resellers because, well, they're used.
I love the market, and you're welcome to charge as much for your crap as you want but understand that charging more than market price is why you won't get my money.
Except for that guy I bought my kegerator from last year - thank you! That was an awesome deal, but I feel bad because I think your new wife forced you into that deal.
Everyone else, your prices suck.
Why You Can't Win With Minarchy
June 26, 2008 saw the United States Supreme Court make a ruling on an issue near and dear to my heart – gun ownership. For those who don't care or simply were unaffected by the ruling, the issue that was being discussed was “does an individual have a right to own a gun in America?”
Conventional wisdom say “Yes” and for nearly two hundred years, Americans have been able to possess firearms, despite increasing regulation and red tape to obtain and carry them. In Washington DC, this regulatory nightmare came to a head. In DC, it was legal to carry a registered firearm if you had a permit. The problem? DC doesn't allow people to register weapons and issues no permits. Now, I object to the ideas of permitting and registration in general, but in this specific issue the combination of permit requirements and non-issuance of permits essentially amounted to an all-out ban.
Dick Heller, a security guard, sued the District of Columbia over this and the lower courts ruled that the US Second Amendment (A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.) covered the “collective” “people” and not an individual. Since DC residents were “protected” by a military, the right was not being infringed. A higher court disagreed, saying individuals do have the right. The District of Columbia people didn't find this acceptable, so appealed the ruling to the highest court in the USA, the Supreme Court.
In short, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 ruling that gun ownership is in fact, an individual right. For the liberty-oriented like myself, the 5-4 numbers are scary. Is “shall not be infringed” really that hard to understand that it splits the court nearly evenly?
Conservatives and miniarchists declared the Heller case a victory because “the government still defends our rights”. Myself and others considered it a loss, because in the ruling they said specifically "nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms. We also recognize another important limitation on the right to keep and carry arms."
In short, even though it's an individual right, the government people can still regulate it.
Now, all of the talk of the wording of the Constitution matters very little to me, I consider it a flawed document, built on a flawed premise. That said, a lot of people do cling to the thing as if it's a holy document and the government people have supposedly agreed to follow it's rules, so it's important in my mind to bring Constitutional issues to light to show “government” for what it is – a group of people doing business at the threat of violence.
The District of Columbia, rebuffed by the Supreme Court, has begun a gun registration program and granted amnesty for 180 days to encourage people to register their firearms now. One man, Dick Heller tried to do so this morning. Yes, this is the same Dick Heller who initiated the lawsuit and won. Now that the Supreme Court has overturned the DC ban, he stood waiting for the 7 am registration to open to register his .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol and a .22-caliber revolver, pretty standard fare firearms.
Mr. Heller was turned away.
An unnamed DC spokes-bureaucrat says that “the gun was a bottom-loading weapon, and according to their interpretation, all bottom-loading guns are outlawed because they are grouped with machine guns.”
In a now-famous internet quip.... WTF!
The importance of this distinction is huge. With the exception of revolvers just about every handgun ever produced is a bottom loader. I'm no gun guru but I can't think of a single one that's NOT a bottom loader.
Much in the same way as the DC government people passed laws effectively banning handgun ownership by not issuing licenses, they are still, even after losing in the highest court in the nation, using deceitful methods to skirt around the issue, to comply without really complying.
Let this be proof to everyone who called the Heller decision a "win" that individual right to gun ownership has not, indeed, been protected. Dick Heller, the man who sued and won, is still not able to legally have his firearm.
Let this show the miniarchists out there: Even "winning" is a loss. The government people's actions are all directed towards control for one reason or another, and once they have control they do not give it up. It is the nature of government to expand and grow, not to shrink. Let this case show you, as cases over and over have shown, that you can not defeat government people oppressing you by turning to the government.
It was J.R.R Tolkien who says of his work, the Lord of the Rings, "You can make the Ring into an allegory of our own time, if you like: an allegory of the inevitable fate that waits for all attempts to defeat evil power by power".
Conventional wisdom say “Yes” and for nearly two hundred years, Americans have been able to possess firearms, despite increasing regulation and red tape to obtain and carry them. In Washington DC, this regulatory nightmare came to a head. In DC, it was legal to carry a registered firearm if you had a permit. The problem? DC doesn't allow people to register weapons and issues no permits. Now, I object to the ideas of permitting and registration in general, but in this specific issue the combination of permit requirements and non-issuance of permits essentially amounted to an all-out ban.
Dick Heller, a security guard, sued the District of Columbia over this and the lower courts ruled that the US Second Amendment (A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.) covered the “collective” “people” and not an individual. Since DC residents were “protected” by a military, the right was not being infringed. A higher court disagreed, saying individuals do have the right. The District of Columbia people didn't find this acceptable, so appealed the ruling to the highest court in the USA, the Supreme Court.
In short, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 ruling that gun ownership is in fact, an individual right. For the liberty-oriented like myself, the 5-4 numbers are scary. Is “shall not be infringed” really that hard to understand that it splits the court nearly evenly?
Conservatives and miniarchists declared the Heller case a victory because “the government still defends our rights”. Myself and others considered it a loss, because in the ruling they said specifically "nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms. We also recognize another important limitation on the right to keep and carry arms."
In short, even though it's an individual right, the government people can still regulate it.
Now, all of the talk of the wording of the Constitution matters very little to me, I consider it a flawed document, built on a flawed premise. That said, a lot of people do cling to the thing as if it's a holy document and the government people have supposedly agreed to follow it's rules, so it's important in my mind to bring Constitutional issues to light to show “government” for what it is – a group of people doing business at the threat of violence.
The District of Columbia, rebuffed by the Supreme Court, has begun a gun registration program and granted amnesty for 180 days to encourage people to register their firearms now. One man, Dick Heller tried to do so this morning. Yes, this is the same Dick Heller who initiated the lawsuit and won. Now that the Supreme Court has overturned the DC ban, he stood waiting for the 7 am registration to open to register his .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol and a .22-caliber revolver, pretty standard fare firearms.
Mr. Heller was turned away.
An unnamed DC spokes-bureaucrat says that “the gun was a bottom-loading weapon, and according to their interpretation, all bottom-loading guns are outlawed because they are grouped with machine guns.”
In a now-famous internet quip.... WTF!
The importance of this distinction is huge. With the exception of revolvers just about every handgun ever produced is a bottom loader. I'm no gun guru but I can't think of a single one that's NOT a bottom loader.
Much in the same way as the DC government people passed laws effectively banning handgun ownership by not issuing licenses, they are still, even after losing in the highest court in the nation, using deceitful methods to skirt around the issue, to comply without really complying.
Let this be proof to everyone who called the Heller decision a "win" that individual right to gun ownership has not, indeed, been protected. Dick Heller, the man who sued and won, is still not able to legally have his firearm.
Let this show the miniarchists out there: Even "winning" is a loss. The government people's actions are all directed towards control for one reason or another, and once they have control they do not give it up. It is the nature of government to expand and grow, not to shrink. Let this case show you, as cases over and over have shown, that you can not defeat government people oppressing you by turning to the government.
It was J.R.R Tolkien who says of his work, the Lord of the Rings, "You can make the Ring into an allegory of our own time, if you like: an allegory of the inevitable fate that waits for all attempts to defeat evil power by power".
Wow, people actually read my blog!
My server crashed last month due to hardware failures and I lost about 3 months of my site, including many pictures, user comments, blog articles and such. I decided then to redo my site because it pissed me off due to limitations, and since nobody reads my blog, I didn't think people would care.
I was wrong twice. Firstly, it appears that people do, in fact read my blog. It's syndicated in several places, linked to by some major electronics sites, scattered throughout the blogosphere. Not only that, but when I posed my hiatus-for-a-rebuild notice, I got several e-mails from people giving me encouragement to keep blogging, tips for restoring my site and so on.
In no specific order, I'd like to extend thanks to Manuel who simply wasn't satisfied with silence, asked questions and made sure it got out to the world. He also encouraged me to blog about building a Django blog, which I may do, or may not do, but it's something that might add more content here, and I always welcome relevant suggestions for that. :)
Thank you Philip, who saw that content was missing and let me know how I might find it again. Afterwards, he and I had a conversation about Openmoko's lackluster website and his contacting of Sean Moss-Pultz. Good to know people are taking steps to get action, rather than simply complaining.
Jeff, who wrote with apologies for unsolicited e-mail honored me. I'm just a regular guy with a blog and my e-mail address is public. I write about what I love, mainly technology (Free Software in specific), liberty and freedom. I'm always happy to answer questions or just shoot the shit, my e-mail is listed in the “Contact Me” link on the side of my site and I do always welcome e-mail. Hell, it was the e-mail I received that really motivated me to keep my site active (the increase in traffic, and wanting to keep that doesn't hurt though...), so if you like my site let me know, it'll keep me doing it.
Thank you Milos, who alerted me that a link to one of my most popular articles was broken and allowed me to fix it. I really like keeping traffic to my site flowing, I do appreciate it.
Thank you David, who took the site recovery bit a step further and actually scoured Google Cache for some of my missing articles, then e-mailed them to me to ensure it wasn't lost.
Er Lern, thank you for being the first to contact me with suggestions after the site failure. I think I got that e-mail literally in less than 24 hours which was amazingly fast considering that I assumed nobody read the site.
Thank you to everyone else who e-mailed and I missed, I'm sure I've missed several. But more than just for sending me e-mail, thank everyone who reads this. It makes me feel awesome knowing that people out there are passionate about the same things I am. It's also good because I see the world in a way that a lot of people don't, and it's a viewpoint that many people aren't used to hearing, so knowing that the messages are getting out makes me feel as if I'm actually accomplishing things. Thank you all, truly.
I was wrong twice. Firstly, it appears that people do, in fact read my blog. It's syndicated in several places, linked to by some major electronics sites, scattered throughout the blogosphere. Not only that, but when I posed my hiatus-for-a-rebuild notice, I got several e-mails from people giving me encouragement to keep blogging, tips for restoring my site and so on.
In no specific order, I'd like to extend thanks to Manuel who simply wasn't satisfied with silence, asked questions and made sure it got out to the world. He also encouraged me to blog about building a Django blog, which I may do, or may not do, but it's something that might add more content here, and I always welcome relevant suggestions for that. :)
Thank you Philip, who saw that content was missing and let me know how I might find it again. Afterwards, he and I had a conversation about Openmoko's lackluster website and his contacting of Sean Moss-Pultz. Good to know people are taking steps to get action, rather than simply complaining.
Jeff, who wrote with apologies for unsolicited e-mail honored me. I'm just a regular guy with a blog and my e-mail address is public. I write about what I love, mainly technology (Free Software in specific), liberty and freedom. I'm always happy to answer questions or just shoot the shit, my e-mail is listed in the “Contact Me” link on the side of my site and I do always welcome e-mail. Hell, it was the e-mail I received that really motivated me to keep my site active (the increase in traffic, and wanting to keep that doesn't hurt though...), so if you like my site let me know, it'll keep me doing it.
Thank you Milos, who alerted me that a link to one of my most popular articles was broken and allowed me to fix it. I really like keeping traffic to my site flowing, I do appreciate it.
Thank you David, who took the site recovery bit a step further and actually scoured Google Cache for some of my missing articles, then e-mailed them to me to ensure it wasn't lost.
Er Lern, thank you for being the first to contact me with suggestions after the site failure. I think I got that e-mail literally in less than 24 hours which was amazingly fast considering that I assumed nobody read the site.
Thank you to everyone else who e-mailed and I missed, I'm sure I've missed several. But more than just for sending me e-mail, thank everyone who reads this. It makes me feel awesome knowing that people out there are passionate about the same things I am. It's also good because I see the world in a way that a lot of people don't, and it's a viewpoint that many people aren't used to hearing, so knowing that the messages are getting out makes me feel as if I'm actually accomplishing things. Thank you all, truly.
I can't stay away...
I planned to stop blogging for a while, intent to rebuild my site as I wanted it using Django. I have found that learning a new programming language and toolkit forces me to adjust my entire coding paradigm. In short, it's not something I've adjusting to quickly. I'm also quietly wondering if I really care about learning Python at all as I've lately been becoming more and more frustrated with computers in general.
Anyway, the world doesn't stop moving just because I stop blogging, and the encroachments upon liberty keep happening, so I feel as if the call of duty is sounding over and over and I'm ignoring it, so... I'm back. I'm going to stick with Jaws for a bit longer, chugging out posts in OpenOffice Writer and pasting them in when I'm done. Really, I think I'd be doing that with Django anyway, since it didn't include spell check. :)
Jaws 0.80 is in second beta, so perhaps that will fix some of my gripes, and since I actually know PHP, perhaps I could expand Jaws out somewhat, but that's neither here nor now.
Anyway, the world doesn't stop moving just because I stop blogging, and the encroachments upon liberty keep happening, so I feel as if the call of duty is sounding over and over and I'm ignoring it, so... I'm back. I'm going to stick with Jaws for a bit longer, chugging out posts in OpenOffice Writer and pasting them in when I'm done. Really, I think I'd be doing that with Django anyway, since it didn't include spell check. :)
Jaws 0.80 is in second beta, so perhaps that will fix some of my gripes, and since I actually know PHP, perhaps I could expand Jaws out somewhat, but that's neither here nor now.
This Site, Broken Articles And Learning Python
Just a quick update. On Friday, July June 21, 2008, the server that hosts this website suffered a drive failure. As the techs went in to hot swap and rebuild the drive, the master drive also failed resulting in complete data loss.
Being my personal site, I hadn't been making backups regularly so I lost about 3 months worth of stuff, including the Freerunner review and the Photo tour of the ASU.
I decided at that point that my website sucks. :) I currently use Jaws CMS which is decently good but not great. The reason I chose to use it, though, was because I like pictures and all of the other blogs suck at managing pictures the way I want them – taggable and on my server. Flickr is probably the closest, but I didn't want to be limited to their storage space, service changes and stuff. Jaws lets me put images in multiple albums without duplicating the images, so I used it.
Unfortunately, the AJAX in the admin interface causes conflicts and sometimes I have to reload a page. The search system suck badly, sometimes matching falsely and not displaying matches. But the ugliest part, frankly, is the RSS feed. When I'm editing an article, it auto-saves to draft mode, but for some stupid reason, it actually posts to the RSS feed, so if my article is long (and unless this is your first visit to my site, you know I post long posts often. I actually meant “quick update” and I'm on 250 words.) it actually syndicates a half finished, often broken, blog post which may or may not be updated later.
Because of this, I'm actually writing this blog post in OpenOffice.org Writer which I'll cut and paste into the CMS. Jaws CMS does a remarkably poor job in all of helping me manage my content so I'm ditching it.
I've been trying to teach myself Python, but at work I deal primarily with PHP so I can't really sit down and just hack. I decided to take this opportunity (the drive failure, if you've already forgotten) to force myself to resolve two issues – my site that sucks and my laziness preventing me from exploring Python.
I've decided to try, at the least, to redo my site using Python, and more specifically, using the Django framework which Debian actually packages. :) This means that my normal few-times per week content won't be posted even though there's some infringement of liberty or some advance in Openmoko's progress or something else worth chatting about. Frankly, I'm lazy, and the less content I need to transfer, the happier I am. So this may be my last blog post for “a while” as I learn Django and ask questions and devote my spare time to that for a bit.
In the mean time, this site will remain up, with some broken articles. :)
Being my personal site, I hadn't been making backups regularly so I lost about 3 months worth of stuff, including the Freerunner review and the Photo tour of the ASU.
I decided at that point that my website sucks. :) I currently use Jaws CMS which is decently good but not great. The reason I chose to use it, though, was because I like pictures and all of the other blogs suck at managing pictures the way I want them – taggable and on my server. Flickr is probably the closest, but I didn't want to be limited to their storage space, service changes and stuff. Jaws lets me put images in multiple albums without duplicating the images, so I used it.
Unfortunately, the AJAX in the admin interface causes conflicts and sometimes I have to reload a page. The search system suck badly, sometimes matching falsely and not displaying matches. But the ugliest part, frankly, is the RSS feed. When I'm editing an article, it auto-saves to draft mode, but for some stupid reason, it actually posts to the RSS feed, so if my article is long (and unless this is your first visit to my site, you know I post long posts often. I actually meant “quick update” and I'm on 250 words.) it actually syndicates a half finished, often broken, blog post which may or may not be updated later.
Because of this, I'm actually writing this blog post in OpenOffice.org Writer which I'll cut and paste into the CMS. Jaws CMS does a remarkably poor job in all of helping me manage my content so I'm ditching it.
I've been trying to teach myself Python, but at work I deal primarily with PHP so I can't really sit down and just hack. I decided to take this opportunity (the drive failure, if you've already forgotten) to force myself to resolve two issues – my site that sucks and my laziness preventing me from exploring Python.
I've decided to try, at the least, to redo my site using Python, and more specifically, using the Django framework which Debian actually packages. :) This means that my normal few-times per week content won't be posted even though there's some infringement of liberty or some advance in Openmoko's progress or something else worth chatting about. Frankly, I'm lazy, and the less content I need to transfer, the happier I am. So this may be my last blog post for “a while” as I learn Django and ask questions and devote my spare time to that for a bit.
In the mean time, this site will remain up, with some broken articles. :)
Photo Tour of the ASU
There
is a lot of speculation about the April Software Update (ASU). Is it a
single image you install, or is it a line of development? Is it a
rebranded Qtopia or something new? How's the sounds quality? What Wifi
management tools will there be? Is there a package installer? What does
it look like?
is a lot of speculation about the April Software Update (ASU). Is it a
single image you install, or is it a line of development? Is it a
rebranded Qtopia or something new? How's the sounds quality? What Wifi
management tools will there be? Is there a package installer? What does
it look like?
I thought I'd take some time today to hopefully
answer those questions, and more importantly, show lots and lots of
screenshots, because everyone likes screenshots. :)
When you
first boot the Freerunner, the screen backlight fades in gradually to
reveal the familiar orange and black Openmoko start splash. After a few
seconds, the screen turns to the black with white scrolling text that
just about every Linux user in the world is familiar with.
Then
come the boots. As a bit of geek humor, probably chosen by Raster,
there is a pair of boots on the boot screen. A green bar slides in and
begins loading. A great example of the early stages can be found on this flash demo.
By default, the ASU image is set to a grid system application launcher.
For those uninterested in this view, there is a bit more unique take on it using the slider mode.
Atop
the action at all stages of using the ASU is Illume, which essentially
functions as the system tray and task bar. Here, you can launch the
keyboard, launch the settings panel, enter the Enlightenment settings
(note, this is slated for removal and doesn't directly affect the use
of ASU), switch to a running application or close an open application.
Let me visually cover those things, in order. First, the keyboard:
The
keyboard is a QWERTY like keyboard that has a dictionary lookup built
in. To bring the keyboard down you tap the “qwerty” area of the Illume
bar. To begun typing, simply hit a letter. To see a more complete list
of words meeting your typed characters, click the white triangle on the
keyboard. There is a shift key which displays upper case numbers. If
you look, you'll see that some keys are missing. If you make a line on
the keyboard going up or down the keymap changes to special characters
(!,@./) and numbers, making the keyboard usable on a terminal. Though,
in fairness, I didn't check to see if there are CTRL or ALT keys which
might affect that use.
The
settings panel is opened by clicking the wrench icon on the Illume
slider. In here there are settings for all kinds of things. I won't go
in depth with them all, the most “visible” is probably the option to
set the slider or icon grid launcher modes.
The
Enlightenment settings, as an E17 user would recognize, are kind of a
“left over” from the development. These settings are planned to be
removed, since the functionality of them is either irrelevant for
Openmoko or will be absorbed into other applications.
One
of the best features of the Freerunner, in my personal opinion, is the
ability to utilize GPS without a non-free driver. Because of this, a
basic GPS application has been included with the ASU. It's really very
much a placeholder or prototype now, as the only thing it seems to do
is display a map that can be zoomed or moved around and prompts that it
fails to get a GPS fix. I'm not exactly sure of the name of this
application, in all honesty. I'm used to calling it “Diversity” thought
I've also heard the name “Splinter” tossed around and I'm not sure of
what the distinction, if any, is.
The
second big hardware change for the Freerunner was the inclusion of
wifi. In order to connect to wireless networks, there is a program
called “Campwifi” that once launched, probes for networks. While not
viable in this shot, I have managed to connect to an open wifi access
point “in range” of my apartment and been assigned an IP address. I
personally have no experience with wifi at ALL aside from what I've
gleaned from reading tutorials over the last few years so I'm not sure
if some of the encryption and authentication schemes are implemented –
with only one unsecured wifi AP within range of my apartment, it's not
been an issue for me yet. Hopefully I'll be able to check that out more
as I'm able to shift away from the 1973 and towards the Freerunner as
my day-to-day phone.
Another
nifty feature of the ASU is the Assassin package manager, a GUI front
end to opkg. Once you launch Assassin, you're presented with a list of
categories to choose from, and some of those categories contain items
that can be installed. So far, there aren't too many packages listed.
Certainly far less than show with an opkg –list. It leaves my mind to
speculate as to how this is important – perhaps Assassin will present
users with action based installs (Install US Maps for GPS) or be used
for more than just software applications for things like ebooks and
ringtones. With an open platform, the mind runs amok.
Once
an application is selected, there's one big “Touch here to install”
button which is very simple to figure out what to do. Once pressed,
you're prompted again to confirm at which case the install begins and
completes.
From
the screenshots you can see I installed “openmoko-messages2”, an
application from the 2007.02 line that was based on GTK. At one point,
when the switch to Qtopia was announced, there were a lot of GTK fans
upset. It seemed to die down a little bit when it became clear that GTK
would still be usable on the phone so I wanted to be sure I got a shot
running a GTK application. It looks hideous because the GTK theme
wasn't installed, but any GTK theme could be applied and hopefully
there will be a matching one in the future. If there was any remaining
doubt, GTK is alive and well within the ASU framework.
Finally,
I'll show a few “glitches”. Firstly, the video processing on the
Freerunner is slower than the 1973 thanks to the Glamo. I found that
after a while of using the device (and with over 40 screenshots, it was
“a while”) the transitions (Illume slides down, launched applications
slide down) began getting choppy. I found reducing my frame rate to 10
fps helped this quite a bit but was still noticeable. Additionally,
NONE of the Qtopia apps would launch in slider or grid mode. Setting
the display variable I was able to launch Qtopia Media Player which
complained about lack of Qcop and then segfaulted as I closed it. But
you'll see that there are no screenshots of the Qtopia apps since they
wouldn't launch “normally” for me.
You'll see below that
occasionally applications crash. I've been shown the “Enlightenment
crashed” white box a few times, and recovery happened. Every now and
then, a half rendered Enlightenment window would pop up but not show me
anything good. I had to use my tiny screwdriver stylus to close that
box, my fingers are too big for that. Lastly, while earlier versions of
the ASU had scrollbars, this version does not. However, when scrolling
in certain areas, a distortion appears in the area where a scrollbar
would be. These, luckily, appeared in screenshots.
The
ASU, while certainly not usable as a daily phone, is certainly full of
promise! I'll be tracking this closely and writing reviews as
applications become more complete and the images become more
functional.
The banners aren't ads...
Just
a small blurb. An IRC friend of mine today sent in a friend because I
frequently talk about the message of liberty. It's kind of awkward, in
one sense, because I keep wondering why people go "I've got a friend
who is pro-liberty, you should talk to him!". I find it questionable
because my friend is ALSO pro-liberty and I wonder if it's simply that
he doesn't have the same sort of support network as me. I currently
live in Maryland, a place where liberty is seldom brought up and even
more infrequently the cause of action. I, however, have been to New
Hampshire to visit the Keene area activists because I am a Porcupine and will be moving to New Hampshire as part of the Free State Project.
I know there is a functional, rational and active group of people who
feel so strongly about freedom that they're comfortable tossing the
ideas out there.
a small blurb. An IRC friend of mine today sent in a friend because I
frequently talk about the message of liberty. It's kind of awkward, in
one sense, because I keep wondering why people go "I've got a friend
who is pro-liberty, you should talk to him!". I find it questionable
because my friend is ALSO pro-liberty and I wonder if it's simply that
he doesn't have the same sort of support network as me. I currently
live in Maryland, a place where liberty is seldom brought up and even
more infrequently the cause of action. I, however, have been to New
Hampshire to visit the Keene area activists because I am a Porcupine and will be moving to New Hampshire as part of the Free State Project.
I know there is a functional, rational and active group of people who
feel so strongly about freedom that they're comfortable tossing the
ideas out there.
So I will begin putting up plugs (what I call
advertisements for purposes other than making money) on my site,
hopefully in a tasteful manner. I began by putting up a banner for Free Talk Live,
a podcast I listen to every day because it is 100% pro-freedom. Ian and
Mark, the regular co-hosts are both among the Keene area activists I've
met and they're great people who both moved from Florida as part of the
Free State Project. They're syndicated on over thirty radio stations
across the USA and there's one station in Tobago that picks them up.
They're also continually rated #1 podcast in the political/cultural
section on a respected podcast ranking site.
Everything on
their site is free, you can download their podcast 6 days a week
totally free of charge. It's one of the many ways I manage to stay
hopeful throughout my day and I thought I should pass that on.
Police State Alert - Dancers Raided
I'm
finding it hard to report on the police state in America now. Not
because it's disgusting to see peaceful people having violence brought
against them. It is disgusting. It's not because the public sits by and
ignores or worse, rationalizes and endorses, this activity.
finding it hard to report on the police state in America now. Not
because it's disgusting to see peaceful people having violence brought
against them. It is disgusting. It's not because the public sits by and
ignores or worse, rationalizes and endorses, this activity.
It's
hard to report on the police state in America because no
self-respecting police state article is complete without references to
Nazi Germany. The problem is, the more I think on it, the more I
realize that even the Nazi's left people alone if they cow toed. In
general, you were permitted to live your life in Nazi Germany as long
as you didn't speak or act against the military machine.
The Nazi's didn't jail people for having their grass too high. The Nazis, to the best of my knowledge, didn't turn SWAT teams on people for dancing without a permit.
Tom commented on this article to point me to the Swing Kids,
a group of Nazi opposing dancers. Thanks Tom! Unfortunately, I'm not
sure if this makes me say "Oh, okay, so maybe the American jackboots
aren't worse than Nazis" or if it makes me say "Yep, there's proof.
Both the Nazi's and the American jackboots do this.."
That's exactly what's happened in Detroit, Michigan. The Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID),
an art exhibit and gallery that has been open for nearly three decades,
was spinning music inspired by or created in Detroit. Detroit, once the
motor capital of the world, also has a dazzling history of music, being
the birthplace of Motown Records and the genre called “Motown”. Detroit is also know as the birthplace of the techno
genre, but that wasn't being celebrated this night. As greats like
James Brown, Aretha Franklin and The Meters played, patrons of Funk Night danced freely.
Many
patrons here come for the atmosphere. Unlike bars and nightclubs,
visitors to CAID are interested in music, fun and dancing. A night out
is for the enjoyment of it, not hopes of “hooking up”. CAID patrons
tended to be more educated, more intelligent and more artistic than the
nightclub crowed shunned by many.
The night's revelry ended as
military equipped police kicked the door in, ordered patrons “On the
floor!” as they panned the crowd of dancers. As CAID patrons complied,
police used their feet to push questioning dissenters into the floor.
After
terrifying the dancers, police began issuing tickets for “loitering
where alcohol was being served illegally”, 130 tickets total. Outside,
unknown to the patrons, police tow vehicles were moving cars to the
impound lots in scores. Forty-four cars in total the police seized,
charging the people $900 each to reclaim their own property,
“generating” $39,600 in “revenue” for the city police department,
ignoring entirely the windfall the county will take in if and when
those loitering fines are paid.
The reason for the raid? Police
raided for “dancing without a permit.” According to Aaron Timlin, a man
who walked from Detroit to New York wearing a cardboard box to promote
an art exhibition and current executive director of CAID, the police
visited him on May 30th and informed him dancing would require a permit.
"Everyone
thinks it's ridiculous we have to have a permit for dancing," said
Timlin. In response to the raid, the tickets and the theft of vehicles,
Timlin is organizing an 8-day long festival with live music and
dancing. "We're going to dance without a permit. If we get a ticket,
we'll fight the ticket and change the law. People should be able to
dance where they want.”.
Iceweasel 3 hacks to make the transition easier
The
improvements in Iceweasel 3 are great. The new styling really fits in
well with my Gnome desktop. However, as with the migration to any major
“point-oh” release sometimes things break compatibility.
improvements in Iceweasel 3 are great. The new styling really fits in
well with my Gnome desktop. However, as with the migration to any major
“point-oh” release sometimes things break compatibility.
For
this reason, I have been hesitant to fully move to Iceweasel 3. The
improved password manager, the new visual styling, improved searching
(you can not enter the title of a page in the address bar and it pulls
it up in your list of auto completions) and improved zooming are all
great, but when I can't do things I usually do, it's not an upgrade.
One
thing I do is play a game called oGame. To enjoy it a bit more, I use
two extensions: FoxGame and GreaseMonkey with a script from
Userscripts.org. Both of these extensions broke with the upgrade to
Iceweasel 3 which has moved from Debian Experimental to Sid, which
means my days of 2.0 are numbered.
Luckily, I complain. Having
complained in the Libervis IRC channel, netdaemon offered me a
suggestion that it was possible to override the extension compatibility
check. I'll be damned, there is! Here's how:
- Type about:config into Iceweasel's address bar and click the "I'll be careful, I promise!" button.
- Right-click anywhere. Choose New>Boolean. Make the name of your new config value extensions.checkCompatibility and set it to false.
- Make another new boolean pair called extensions.checkUpdateSecurity and set the value to false.
- Restart Iceweasel.
Unfortunately,
FoxGame actually is incompatible with at least the RC 2 version of
Iceweasel. So I had to manually disable that one, but Greasemonkey,
which I utilize more frequently, works just fine thus far.
Also,
at some point my work computer (also running Debian Sid/Experimental)
updated to Iceweasel 3 and lost it's back button. This is annoying, but
not incapacitatingly so, since you can always use ALT key commands or
use the right click menu.
Anyway, to restore the back button
simply go to View->Toolbars->Customize and click “Restore
Defaults”. Problem solved. Both of these tips today gave me a mostly
functional, feature enhanced version of Iceweasel 3 and I'm happier for
it.
That which we learn from storms...
Yesterday
afternoon my wife sent me an instant message that said “It's looking
like a hurricane here! It's dark as night and really windy, be
prepared, it's moving your way.” For clarity sake, my wife works 50
miles east of where I work, and we both work about 50 miles south of
where we live, forming a triangle.
afternoon my wife sent me an instant message that said “It's looking
like a hurricane here! It's dark as night and really windy, be
prepared, it's moving your way.” For clarity sake, my wife works 50
miles east of where I work, and we both work about 50 miles south of
where we live, forming a triangle.
As the storm rolled past her
and over me, I didn't think too much of it having experienced storms
all of my life. The people around me tend to overreact to storm,
however, and there was commotion and bustle which got me out of work,
so I'm not exactly complaining.
Come that evening, I decided to
get pizza from an out-of-the-way pizza place. It's a place that makes
wonderful calzone style sub sandwiches. The chain is from Michigan,
where I grew up, but they have franchises around the region. There are
a few stores, located several hundred miles away from each other, that
have “migrated”; typically as someone from Michigan moved into other
areas and missed the chain.
The store is located about 10 or
12 miles southeast of the highway I take on my commute home, so going
there tends to be a “special” occasion. Nothing was particularly
special about last night, but I was feeling in a good mood and wanted a
ham and cheese sub, so I went for it. Traffic to the highway was pretty
bad because of the storm and on the George Washington parkway I passed
no less than three cars that had been crushed when a downed tree fell
onto bumper-to-bumper traffic.
As I was exiting the highway
towards the pizza place, I noticed it was unusually dark. For a few
seconds I attributed it to the tail-end of the thunderstorm but as I
drove closer into the city I realized the area had no electricity. This
was more and more apparent as it moved from a single apartment complex
to storefront after dark storefront.
There's some kind of
strange, privative feeling that settled over me then, a stark reminded
that electricity hasn't always existed. I suddenly realized that every
movie I've watched about “colonial times” included the odd, persistent
“glow” that everything surrounding a major metropolitan area takes. The
same luminescence that gives the night sky an orange-red glow. Some
call it “light pollution” but that's similar in my mind to calling the
Mona Lisa “color pollution”. People like light, and it has a purpose.
Anyway,
as I'm driving closer and closer to some central streets in
Gaithersburg, I realized something else. My drive was very smooth,
which is not normally the case in metro cities.
And then I noticed why.
With no electricity, there were no streetlights.
Now,
I'm normally a safe driver, having logged hundreds upon hundreds of
thousands of miles (a former professional driver) with no accidents at
all. I took my drivers test in over a foot of snow, so it's not always
been the greatest conditions either. I'm well aware that other drivers
aren't as comfortable behind the wheel as I am.
Another thing
to help set the scene is that many American have busy lives, and more
so when you get into the city. Gaithersburg is not exactly a “large”
city, but in the metro DC area the end of one city is the beginning of
another. It could be considered the outer rim of “Washington DC” which
means it's decidedly “busy” in it's own right. Gaithersburg residents
are busy Americans, which means a large number of them “eat out” at
night – what we say when we buy a meal prepared by someone else,
usually a restaurant. When the electricity goes out, most people don't
have a way to cook food if they have food at all. Normally, you'd get
in the car and drive to a local place that has food, but the power was
out for a lot of people. This was, after all, a large storm.
So
we're talking a large, fairly urban area full of people who must leave
the city and go to a city “a few cities” away in order to eat dinner.
This means a lot of people were on the road at that moment, most all
heading in my general direction; towards the highway.
The
notion of rainy, nighttime roads, several thousand cars and no traffic
control devices is enough to send chills down my wife's spine, but it
was perhaps one of the greatest affirmations of human capacity, and
indeed a serious validation of my voluntaryist perspective.
Without
the artificial means many people are used to blindly obeying, traffic
was moving more efficiently than it normally does. There were no people
sitting idle at red lights because the light was red. People with no
light pulled to the line, came to a stop, evaluated if they could make
the turn safely, and did if they could.
Three lane roads that
meet at a 4-way stop worked well too. Rather than sitting in your
middle lane as the empty lane next to you had a green arrow, people
going in any direction came to a stop, evaluated the situation and
acted. In some cases, I noticed a flash of headlights to communicate
with other drivers or a wave of the hand to say “Go ahead”.
Free
of the lights and signs most people are so accustomed to, there was
still order. Free of arbitrary rules, human thought and evaluation
created efficiency.
There are very few things more powerful
than what I saw last night – because my eyes were open to it I've
experienced one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. It was
moving in a way that putting words to can't quite describe.
There
is no better testament to human capability than seeing order arise when
everyone in that situation is obviously treading unfamiliar ground.
What
does it take to get this? It takes something jarring before people
“wake up”. Watching normal drivers on any given day I see people too
confidant, those who will speed through an intersection knowing “the
other guy” “has” to stop. Too many people who drive aggressively
because they “know” they have the “right of way”. It takes a removal of
“all the rules” to remind people that they are responsible for
themselves. It takes darkness and uncertainty before they really become
aware that they're in control of a ton of metal and enough energy to
move that ton of metal at 60 miles per hour. To really make them aware
that a press of their foot can send, or stop, their vehicle towards
other people doing the same.
It takes people who refuse to
blindly follow the direction of a sign, a light or a line. It takes
people using critical thinking skills and being responsible. It takes a
little bit of uncertainty, concern and respect for other people.
The
benefits of this were efficiency. I looked up Gaithersburg on Wikipedia
and I see that the metro area has roughly 5 million people in it. I
recall that UPS, the parcel delivery company, saved millions of dollars
by routing their deliveries to remove left turns.
How much
oil might have been saved if all of those 5 million people idled at a
red light for 2 seconds less every time they drove to or from work? How
much might have been saved if the power went out like that three of
four times a year?
When I advocate voluntaryism, I'm often met
with fears of chaos. I'm met with fears of chaos at the hands of other
human beings. For the longest time, I've held my views with a bit of
skepticism – belief with no concrete proof. Until last night. Today, I
awoke for the first time confidant and sure that humanity has the
capacity to operate without having some government put signs and lights
directing their lives every few hundred yards. Today I awoke knowing
that human beings, myself and those around me, could operate
responsibly. Today I saw on a the “chaos” that the skeptical fear and
use government to shield themselves from.
The Positivity Of Voluntaryism
All
too frequently I find that most people greatly misunderstand the
philosophies of liberty. Perhaps those of use who love liberty are
guilty too – very often it seems we are “anti-government” rather than
pro-liberty. But as much as those overused cliches are tossed about, I
think they still miss the greatest point, one that as a liberty lover
even I am just beginning to see is the whole POINT.
too frequently I find that most people greatly misunderstand the
philosophies of liberty. Perhaps those of use who love liberty are
guilty too – very often it seems we are “anti-government” rather than
pro-liberty. But as much as those overused cliches are tossed about, I
think they still miss the greatest point, one that as a liberty lover
even I am just beginning to see is the whole POINT.
Voluntaryists
are positive people. We don't dislike the government because they're
“big” and we're weak. We don't advocate personal responsibility because
we believe we're better suited to survive than others. We don't believe
we'd be better off if we had to “cut the dead weight” that many accuse
us of believing since we stand opposed to welfare programs.
Voluntaryists are optimists, not pessimists.
Hard to accept? How can someone who believes that we'd be better off without government? How can someone who finds fault in so much be a positive person? Let's dig deep and evaluate our outlook.
Without
government, most people think the world would turn to chaos, where the
“strong” picked on the “weak”. This assumption believes that without
forced order, people want nothing more than to harm other people. They
can't explain why they believe this, really. Very few people who use
this argument are eager to bash my face in and steal my property,
they're good people, it's “the other people” who they fear. A survey of
the entire world would find the vast majority of people are good
people, but assume everyone else is not. Do you really WANT a society
to prosper when you live in fear of “everyone else”?
Voluntaryists
reject the idea that “law” is what keeps people “in order”. We love
order, just not law. Voluntaryists believe that human beings have
specific natural traits – we all must eat, for instance. We all walk in
a certain way unless we have a disability. To be human means that
certain traits are always inherent. Even our dispositions are
affected by our natures, throughout history almost every human being
has found ways to communicate with other humans, is this just chance or
is there something in our nature that brings this about?
As
humans we recognize that each person is inherently different. One
individual may be taller, another shorter. One may have red hair, or
black or no hair at all. One may be social, another socially awkward.
One may be mathematically smart or totally inept at the abstract
concepts. There are, for every human being, weaknesses we have and
strengths we possess. I, for instance, do poorly with physical and
spatial assessment – I can't put a basketball through a hoop with any
frequency; I find visualizing complex structures or estimating distance
to be difficult. Even my best guess is often “way off”. I have an
uncanny ability to recall information. I possess higher abstract
reasoning skills than most people I associate with. I'm not better or
worse for any of these things, I am merely different.
Those differences are key. Because I can't visualize structures very well, it's difficult for me to build
them. Even if I managed that, it would be difficult to make a structure
(like my house) sturdy. Because of my weaknesses, I rely on other
people in order to prosper. Our differences as human beings are what
makes wealth inherent in all of us – from the richest like Bill Gates
to the poorest farmer in Africa. To be different is to be valuable.
In building my house, I seek out the value of my neighbor who can visualize and produce elaborate structure. He
in turn taps the wealth of the logger who has a green thumb and can
make wood, the trucker who can navigate well, the numerically adept
accountant who handles the money, the skillful risk analyzer of the
bank that financed my home and so on. The differences between
humans, and the desire to increase individual wealth means that we must
turn to our neighbors. Even the most selfish person gains very very
little by hurting and destroying other people.
Humans need not
pass laws to ensure order and protection – no law dictates that you
hold the door for someone as you're exiting a building, but you'll see
this with surprising regularity if you only look. For anyone
who doubts the capacity of humans to interact on a voluntary basis, to
find exchanges that are mutually beneficial, examine your own daily
routine. You'll see the majority of all daily interactions are nothing
but these exchanges – my abundant wealth (computer skill, for instance)
for your abundant wealth (advertising prowess, for instance) where we
BOTH feel we gain in the end. Very few humans fuel their daily routine
with violence. Even on an extended network, how many people does the
average person know that fuel their daily lives by violence?
Voluntary interaction is by far the most common kind, covering the vast
majority of our lives.
Those exchanges are the “invisible hand”. The very differences that make us unique create the marketplace.
Why then, do we hate governments? Keeping in mind that all
humans have inherent wealth, we look at governments with scorn because
governments commit violence and destroy wealth that we can (and indeed,
must) tap. When governments pass a law prohibiting the use of drugs,
for instance, they're prohibiting a drug dealer from tapping his wealth
in a manner that he chooses to. “Surely this man could be growing rice
to feed the poor?”. Perhaps he doesn't want to – Richard Stallman could certainly be told to work at Microsoft
and it would produce a more stable Windows operating system. But
Richard Stallman won't, doesn't want to and should not be forced to
give his wealth to Microsoft – he should be free to enter it into the
marketplace as he sees best. No person derives their wealth from a
single point, either. The only person able to say what would be the
best way to enter that wealth into the market is the person who possess
it. Remember that the marketplace requires both sides to find benefit
in the exchange in such transactions. Would a drug user find the same
value in a small baggie of rice? This creates a distortion in the
natural balance of wealths possessed by each individual, and
artificially devalues certain kinds of wealth.
A single
mother, who raises her children in a safe home could create wealth as a
babysitter or daycare provider. Because she cares about her own child
it is likely that she has the capacity to keep other children safe.
This woman possibly can cook as well, and may have some level of
capacity as an educator (reading to children is a good thing and does stimulate brain function). Governments “regulating” this
by mandating a certain number of adults to children, a certain width to
the doorways (which a residence would always fail), licensing and so on
does nothing but make it harder for her to enter her value (she
probably has much more time than money) into the marketplace in a manner that would provide her beneficial return. After renovating her home,
getting licensing, having inspections and funding all of this, it's
likely that she'll not be able to compete price-wise which artificially
inflates the wealth-value ratio (called “price”) of her service and devalues
her incentive to enter the marketplace at all. Governments, when they
aren't actively using violence, diminish and distort wealth.
Sadly, governments tend to use violence as well as the ever-present threats of violence.
If a person chooses to exchange his fairly earned (by mutually
beneficial exchange of goods and services among willing parties) for a
bag of cannabis and smokes it in the privacy of his own home, the government frequently uses force against him. Frequently governments use force to put cannabis smokers in prison or kill them
when they do not cooperate. Imprisoned carpenters are not able to
exchange their value, preventing others from tapping it. More so,
governments frequently impose theft on non-destructive people in the
marketplace, again shifting the natural flow of goods and services
artificially, limiting the amount of wealth people in the marketplace
can use to build on their existing wealth and in turn reintroduce to
the marketplace.
Voluntaryists hate governments because
governments initiate violence to back up everything they do.
Voluntaryists hate violence because violence harms people.
Voluntaryists condemn the harming of other people because free people always
produce value. Even when one is stealing from the rich to give to the
poor, wealth is destroyed but in the process wealth (be it time, raw
materials or human value) is consumed which in the end deprives the
marketplace more than the gain that was desired.
We don't
dislike the government because they're “big” and we're weak. We dislike
governments because we believe everyone is strong and they prevent people from realizing it.
We don't advocate personal responsibility because we believe we're
better suited to survive than others. We advocate self responsibility
because we believe everyone has value and if it be tapped would sustain
them. We don't believe we'd be better off if we had to “cut the dead
weight” that many accuse us of believing since we stand opposed to
welfare programs. We believe that welfare programs simply create
excuses not to tap the wealth that people possess. Nobody needs a
handout because nobody is valueless.
Less choice, less control
Freedom is about honoring the choices of our neighbor.
Using force and violence against our neighbor because we don't like
their choice stands against this idea. In the United States, a land
proclaimed by a large portion of it's people to be the “land of the
free” it has become more and more clear that the choices of our
neighbor are indeed, not respected at all.
Using force and violence against our neighbor because we don't like
their choice stands against this idea. In the United States, a land
proclaimed by a large portion of it's people to be the “land of the
free” it has become more and more clear that the choices of our
neighbor are indeed, not respected at all.
I've written before of the growing police state in the USA,
which mimics the police state found in the United Kingdom and elsewhere
around the world. When I read this story, however, I was taken aback
even knowing what I know.
Canton, Ohio, USA has unanimously
passed a new bill into law. This bill makes a certain lack of action a
criminal offense. First time offenders will be fined $150 and second
time offenders can be given fines of $250 and given jail time of 30
days. What is this new crime, you ask?
Yes,
that's right. In today's society, a man who works his days at a
reputable job and purchases land and a home in portions of the United
States can not choose the height of grass that he finds acceptable for
his own land.
It's the type of action needed, says Canton City Mayor William Healy, “in order to clean up our neighborhoods and our city."
Respect
for our neighbor's decisions has literally become such an alien concept
that failure to mow your lawn can put you in jail. How long until
people wake up, drop the “land of the free” platitude and begin to take
action.
First they came for the drug dealers and I was quiet because I didn't like drugs.
Next they came for the immigrants and I was quite because I was a natural born citizen.
Then they came for the “religious cults” and I was quiet because I didn't like their way of life.
Later they came for the people with long grass and I was quiet because I thought it unsightly.
Now they're coming for me and there's nobody left to object!
Boycott Subway
As
a voluntaryist and a free marketeer, I believe that people should be
free to make their own choices. One of the most important of these
choices is the decsion of a parent to pick the course of education best
suited to their child.
a voluntaryist and a free marketeer, I believe that people should be
free to make their own choices. One of the most important of these
choices is the decsion of a parent to pick the course of education best
suited to their child.
I am a strong supporter of homeschooling and more so, strongly against the government educating children.
So when I learned today that Doctor's Associates Inc, the parent company that owns Subway, was holding an essay writing contents for children but excluding homeschoolers I decided to take action.
Anyone
who supports liberty and homeschooling, please join me and other libery
lovers in boycotting Subway until they renounce their policy of
discrinination against homeschooling. While I strongly support Subway's
right to do this, I believe as a consumer I have an obligation to not
support companies that piss on my values.
If you choose to do this boycott, please let them know why.
Doctor’s Associates Inc.
325 Bic Dr.
Milford, CT 06460 CT
Tel. 203-877-4281
Toll Free 800-888-4848
Fax 203-876-6674
President: Frederick A. (Fred) DeLuca
VP Operations: Millie Shinn
Controller: David Worroll
Day One: Openmoko Freerunner
Since I made my purchase of the Neo1973
back in January, I have been doing almost daily reviews of the Openmoko
software and posting those reviews to the device owner's mailing list
as well as contributing the reviews to the Wiki.
back in January, I have been doing almost daily reviews of the Openmoko
software and posting those reviews to the device owner's mailing list
as well as contributing the reviews to the Wiki.
To continue
this, Openmoko Inc. has provided me with a Freerunner sample before
they even go on sale to developers. Developers and early adopters don't
have to wait too much longer now since mass production has begun. As
soon as the distribution centers have product to ship, the Openmoko.com
store will begin offering the devices for $399 USD (or a 10-pack at
$3,690 as part of the reseller system).
For those unfamiliar,
the single biggest feature improvement for most people is Wifi
capability though the addition of accellerometers opens some creative
(and sometimes goofy) avenues to explore. For Free Software
enthusiasts, Openmoko has eliminated the need for a non-free GPS device
driver so Freerunner users can now make use of GPS features without
comprimising the integrity of their devices.
Below, you can see a detailed selection if images I took as I unpacked my new Freerunner.
Unlike the Neo1973 shipping,
the Freerunner is less "geeky" and more chic. As a geek, I liked the
clamshell of the 1973's packaging, but I had to appreciate the almost
jewlery-like feeling I got from opening the Freerunner's case. My wife
loved the Freerunner inset in dense foam, and the clean simple
presentation of the device first and foremost. The user sees the device
they purchased first, rather than fumbling around with manuals and
accessories.
The Freerunner doesn't come without accessories, however.
Tucked
underneath the dense foam are several useful accessories, including my
personal favorite the AC wall charger. It should be noted that this is
a pre-release sample so may not even be indicative of what the
developers get. I think it is 100% certain that the AC adapter is
included though, which eliminates the Linux PC tether almost required
to use a Neo1973. In addition, there are two adapters for international
electrical sockets, a 512 MB microSD card, a black headset, a USB cable
and a LASER/LED/Pen Stylus.
After unpacking the box, I took several more photos which can be seen in my Openmoko Image Gallery but I'll try to find the best ones.
On
the right side of the Freerunner you have at the top the AUX button, a
headphone jack and a speaker port. On the left side of the device
there's a spot to connect an external GPS antenna. Below that is a
mini-USB port with the POWER button directly below with a speaker port
at the bottom.
For
users of the Neo1973, there are two signifigant visible differences.
First, the band around the sides is now black, a change I personally
like quite a bit but it entirely cosmetic and predicated on personal
preference. If you look carefully, you can see that the AUX and POWER
buttons are transluent on the Freerunner. This is because the
Freerunner has incorporated 3 colored LED's into the hardware to
provide traditional visual cues that many people expect in a mobile
device. Blink to indicate an unread message or notify of missed calls,
or indicate hardware status like "Connected to a Bluetooth device".
A
non-visual change affects the USB port. Though limited to USB 1.1
speeds, the Freerunner's USB port is capable of host-mode operation,
opening the door to allow the Freerunner to do things like read USB
thumb drives (or privacy keys!). There's some apprehension about how
this would affect total battery life, but the possibility exists if the
user would like to take advantage of it.
Another
noticable difference for users of the Neo1973 is the microSD card and
SIM card slots. On the Neo, both cards have a slide-lock system which
holds the cards in place. On the Freerunner, only the SIM card is slide
lock. The microSD slot has an "arm" on each side that needs to be
lifted up and to secure, needs simply to be pressed back in. For me, I
had to lift each arm individually in order to insert the microSD card.
While not hard at all to use, I was expecting a slide-lock, even after
being warned. :) I can say with certainty that the Freerunner's parts
are a bit sturdier than the Neo's which is great. I'm a rather large
guy with big fingers, so not having to deal with thin delicate metal
was nice. The SIM card latches firmly on the Freerunner and stays put.
Once
the device was reassembled, I took it over to my PC and plugged up the
USB cable. Having been told that one of the engineering goals was to
allow the Freerunner to power on with USB power only, I decided to try
it. I held down the POWER button a bit longer than the Neo1973 requires
and immediately noticed a wonderful difference. On the Neo1973 the
screen simply illuminates, going from off to bright instantly, but on
the Freerunner, the screen "warms up" by fading. This little touch goes
a long way to giving the feel that the device is in fact being polished
and prepared for a mass market release.
I did notice, however,
that the battery indicator showed an almost full battery immediately.
This was fine, but it means I'm still not sure what the Freerunner is
capable of doing power wise via USB. The critical thing for me is that
the device could boot via USB and a dead battery to allow fast charge
mode instead of having to wait an hour like you do with a "sleeping"
Neo1973. Time will certainly tell on this one.
Soon I will
begin evaluating the ASU (April Software Update) which is the beginning
of the new Openmoko software stack which incorporated applications from
Qtopia while expanding on them and supporting a whole range of software
applications, including some promising things in development for
Openmoko.
As I have time to use this new software and come up with review criteria, I will begin writing daily (or so) software reviews similar to the ones I've done before. In addition, I plan to continue to track the progress of the ASU as it's adapted to run on the Neo1973.
Openmoko Freerunner Update
I just thought I'd drop an update about my favorite Free Software project. :)
Today
I got word from Steve (The production manager) from Openmoko Inc. that
mass production of the Openmoko Freerunner - the long awaited GTA02 -
will begin May 9th, 2008.
So you have 3 steps: build phone. test phone. ship phone.
Then we take orders. I was very adamament about having phones in the disty ready to ship before I opened the web shop.
This means soon, Openmoko Freerunner will be going on sale. :) More great news!
I'll certainly post again when it's on sale, and once I have mine.
Man kidnapped for refusing to give money to armed gang
"This
man is one of the most honorable men of character," said Robert Wall,
CEO and president of World Black Belt, a martial arts training firm.
man is one of the most honorable men of character," said Robert Wall,
CEO and president of World Black Belt, a martial arts training firm.
Another
witness described how [the man] had helped train personnel from 33
airlines on safety techniques after the September 11, 2001, terror
attacks, without seeking pay or media attention.
In 1999 an
armed gang began demanding payment from a man in a fashion similar to
the mafia. While not stated implicitly, the message was clear. Pay up
or bad things will happen to you. Being a man of honor he refused to
pay. In 2006 this armed gang decided enough was enough. They claimed
that by living in their territory, the man had accruded a debt of
roughly $15 million dollars, money that (in the hands of the gang)
would be used to fund the slaughter of foreigners, train assassins,
invade the privacy of innocent people and sustain a regime of
brainwashing and intimidation.
Despite the man's offerings of $5 million dollars and pleas to "have mercy", the gang reacted.
[This]
should send a loud and crystal clear message to all [..] defiers that
if they engage in similar [...] conduct, they face joining him, said
Nathan Hochman, a spokesman for the gang. There's no secret formula, he
went on to say. Pay up in a timely manner of face their reaction.
***
It
plays like a Hollywood movie and conjurs up images of smoky speakeasies
and men with bad accents. Men concerned with the fear that the public
has seen someone "get away with it".
But the sad, disgusting
reality is that this scene didn't take place in a movie that one could
get up and walk away from if they found it distasteful. This scene
happend in a federal courtroom.
Wesley Snipes, a
world-reknowned actor who stared in films such as "Murder at 1600" and
the Blade trilogy, was sentenced to 3 years in prison today for refusal
to pay taxes. Taxes which would go to fund the war in Iraq, wiretapping
of American subjects and the "War on Drugs" which uses violence against
people who set plants on fire.
The fact that the gang call
themselves "the government" matters very little in the end. The
threats, the violence and the intimidation are VERY real. Pay up, or
suffer our wrath. The fact that they call their bribe money "taxes"
matters little, for a man who harmed nobody will spend the next three
years deprived of his livelyhood and seperated (by fear of being shot)
from his family.
A crowd stood by as Mr. Snipes exited the
court room and said "Wow!" but this crowd was not enough to change the
situation. Letters from some of the nations social elite made
recommendations to the court for leniency but the only think in the
minds of the government thugs was the impression their actions would
make on the populace.
On you.
What impression WILL it
make? Will you sit by and doublethink this action away, calling the man
a "criminal" for refusing to pay blood money? Will you quietly reflect
on the fact that 'it wasn't me" and move on?
Will you take a
stand and say "This isn't right!". Will you add your voice to that
crowd, and do exactly what those goons feared?
Will you say 'You have no authority over me!"?
Why I've ditched the Free Software Foundation...
For
the past several years, I've been a proud supporter of the Free
Software Foundation. The ideals of Free Software have always rung true
to me, and I've not only adopted Free Software solutions in my home
(even my wife runs GNU/Linux) but advocated for others to evaluate what
they find important and adopt free software themselves.
the past several years, I've been a proud supporter of the Free
Software Foundation. The ideals of Free Software have always rung true
to me, and I've not only adopted Free Software solutions in my home
(even my wife runs GNU/Linux) but advocated for others to evaluate what
they find important and adopt free software themselves.
So when
I pulled my funding last month from the FSF, I was asked "Why?" from
some friends. "Do you not care about free software anymore?"
I still care deeply.
Free
Software is, at it's most very basic for me, a matter of property
rights. To me, it is an affront to property rights to sell or give
something someone and enforce conditional restrictions upon them. If
Oster sells you a toaster, they have NO right to prevent you from
taking that toaster apart, studying it, adapting it and using those
adaptations in the marketplace. Free Software then, has ALWAYS been
about me holding my right to study that which is mine - and affirms
that everything on my computer is in fact MINE.
Due only in
part to Free Software, the activist nature within me has been awoken.
Even more than with free software, I feel it's important to stand for
what I beleive in and make decisions that reaffirm that believe. The
newest belief if that government, in some way shape or form, is the
cause of most of the day-to-day gripes I have. That isn't the point of
this blog entry though...
What has become clear to me is that
the Free Software Foundation is not truly comitted to user freedom.
Furthermore, they're quite willing to use the guns of government to
enforce their "freedom". Freedom is free market freedom. Freedom is, at
it's very base, the right to choose. I'm still firmly comitted to the
ideals of Free Software, but I stand against the Free Software
Foundation, as I stand against anyone, who feels it's morally
justifyable to use the guns of government to enforce compliance with
ANYTHING.
If free software is better, free software will stand
it's own ground, and hundreds of men with military weaponry can't part
with it. Bad ideas, however, don't seen the threat of violence to be
abandoned, as it makes no sense to continue with it. Free Software
stands and fights it's own battles, using only consumer opinion to
oppose Microsoft and Apple and Adobe. I'm quite content to leave it
there, and in order to do that I found it necessary to pull my funding
of the Free Software Foundation.
Viva Libre!
Police State, USA.
As a child going through the schools setup, administrated and funded by the US Government (which in turn gets it's money by taxes) I was taught to hate Nazi Germany. Not only did they burn Jews for being Jews but their police state
laid waste to all of the values that people faught for and died to
protect. Soldier-police could barge into a person's home to carry out
searches under the guise of searching for closeted away Jews. This
pretense, however, was abandoned as the soldier-police were granted the
power to arrest on suspicion that someone had comitted a crime. Asking the solider-police "Why?" was forbidden and would put you on a list of "Enemies of the State".Welcome to America, with liberty and justice for all.
This way please.
laid waste to all of the values that people faught for and died to
protect. Soldier-police could barge into a person's home to carry out
searches under the guise of searching for closeted away Jews. This
pretense, however, was abandoned as the soldier-police were granted the
power to arrest on suspicion that someone had comitted a crime. Asking the solider-police "Why?" was forbidden and would put you on a list of "Enemies of the State".
This invasion of a person's home, lives and livelyhood was evil, something all vigilant Americans shouldn't tolerate.
On the flip side, we chanted the Pledge of Allegiance
in a symbol of blind patriotic faith. Once done, we'd sit down and
study about how the American patriots rose up against British tyranny
to found "the best nation in history". Part of this indoctrination
includes the premise that the checks and balances created a nation in which a police state couldn't form.
In that false sense of security, the majority of the population stopped being weary.
April
11th 2008 saw what some media outlets are calling the "largest regional
crime crackdown ever taken". Large is an understatement. This
undertaking, given the US Military-style name "Operation Sudden Impact" included agents from 53 federal, state, municipal and local agencies to apprehend terrorists.
Terrorism, huh?
Channel 5 News in Memphis, Tennessee reports Federal agencies raided several Memphis businesses in a coordinated effort to find information about possible terrorism ties.
The operation has been named known as "Sudden Impact."
At the same time, it is also being reported that The 100 sheriff's deputies working Saturday night and Sunday morning also recovered 12.2 grams of heroin.
What this says is pretty clear: Drugs are terrorism in the eyes of the police.
Futhermore, with the police now working with the military (the National
Guard was one of the 53 agencies involved) to "fight crime" AND "fight
terrorism" it's pretty clear that under the eyes of the soldier-police
crime itself it terrorism.
They issued citations for 202 traffic violations.
Speeders
are now terrorists. If there was any doubt that the soldier-police were
here in America, armed and ready to act, this should eliminate it all.
Speeders are terrorists. "What we have found traditionally is that
terrorists are involved in a number of lesser known type crimes," said
Mark Luttrell, Shelby County sheriff.
Like the Nazi Ghestapo, all pretense of fighting a public enemy has even gone. The FBI along with hundreds of officers said they are looking for anything out of the ordinary.
This statement from a national news outlet (CBS) has a two-fold impact.
Firstly, doing something "out of the ordinary" itself constitutes
police-soldier attention and secondly, but NOT attaching outrage and
disgust to this statement, that it's already become common practice.
History can be fun...
Andy's blog said "everyone was doing it" so I have to too.
history | awk '{a[$2]++}END{for(i in a){print a[i] " " i}}' | sort -rn | head
On my work computer, as my non-root user (kevin) I get:
96 ssh
66 su
30 cd
29 sux
29 rm
23 screen
22 time
21 ls
17 /opt/cinderrat-2008-03-28/bin/firefox
15 apt-get
Also on my work machine, I get the following as root:
181 apt-get
84 /opt/dfu-util/bin/dfu-util
45 nano
32 ls
24 mount
19 cd
10 apt-spy
7 rm
7 modprobe
7 iptables
For
those who don't know, dfu-util is the application used for flashing
Openmoko images to the phone. Cinderrat is a CVS build of Mozilla's
Firefox browser (which ends up being called Minefield anyway, defeating
the point of rebranding).
What does your history say about you?
A thousand words unspoken...
There's an adage that states "A picture is worth a thousand words". I've had many experiences before where I agreed, but today... Today, I have that experience in the way it was meant to be. I've seen a picture that brings to mind a thousand words that I can't possibly put to paper (so to speak).
This monument was made in New York, USA. It was shipped to the southwest United States and erected on a concrete circle to stand proudly as a symbol of the American friendship with the bordering nation of Mexico. Clearly, the monument was designed to stand tall and allow people to look at it from all sides, walking along the concrete circle and crossing into both the USA and Mexico to see it entirely.
There is another adage that springs to mind, shaded in tones of irony and disdain...
"Good fences make good neighbors."
This monument was made in New York, USA. It was shipped to the southwest United States and erected on a concrete circle to stand proudly as a symbol of the American friendship with the bordering nation of Mexico. Clearly, the monument was designed to stand tall and allow people to look at it from all sides, walking along the concrete circle and crossing into both the USA and Mexico to see it entirely.
There is another adage that springs to mind, shaded in tones of irony and disdain...
"Good fences make good neighbors."
Debian Based Source Package management
I'm
a Debian user. One of the strongest points in the Debian world is the
package management system that is both binary and source based. In
addition to the software, Debian maintains strict rules regarding the
package management process to ensure high-quality packages with the
minimum of conflicts.
Sometimes, however, those conflicts occur
especially running the "rolling" testing or unstable distros.
Frequently the issues come when updating "sets" that contain many
packages, such as KDE or Gnome, when one piece didn't build but other
chunks are there. Being able to pull down the source code and build it
on your own system before it hits your mirror can be a lifesaver.
In
addition to building missing packages, Debian's source based
repositories are the only "safe" and "easy" way to mix sources -
something I've personally had to do to leverage the large number of
packages in GetDeb that are designed for Ubuntu but will build and play nice with Debian systems.
I've
been meaning for a LONG time to sit and write out a tutorial on how to
easily use the tools, but someone else has done basically that so I'll
merely link there and call it a day. :)
http://www.ducea.com/2008/03/06/howto-recompile-debian-packages/
How my memory fades...
Do you remember PogoBall?
Yeah. Me too. :(
Yeah. Me too. :(
OpenMoko Daily Snapshot Review - 20 Feb 2008
Today I've done a new review of the 20 February 2008 snapshot of OpenMoko for the Neo1973.
The full review can be found http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Snapshot_review/2008-02-20
The major news is that today SD support has returned, which means I can recommend all users to upgrade to today's image and kernel. :) Today also saw decent (almost 50 seconds less!) improvement to boot time.
These reviews make me feel good. :) I got thanked by Sean Moss-Pultz (CEO of OpenMoko Inc.) himself, and have had developers give me info on changes, causes and plans for the distribution. It feels awesome to be able to help the project even though my coding skills are sorely lacking.
I'm a bit concerned about where to go from here. For the most part, my reviews cover the major functionality of the device. Phone calls, SMS messages and media capability. I don't touch GPS because it requires non-free.
There are applications that I don't review also because I consider them less than critical (like the fact that there are 4 sudoko games) but at this point I'm thinking that I have time to check the "less than critical" things. I also really want to begin moving into building a realistic, step-by-step wishlist. The audio system is in place now so the phone rings, but most people consider multiple ringtones a basic feature. Profiles are also pretty basic (phone in vibrate only mode, for instance) and don't exist.
I've asked the device-owners list to give input on how to improve the review and where to go from here. :)
The full review can be found http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Snapshot_review/2008-02-20
The major news is that today SD support has returned, which means I can recommend all users to upgrade to today's image and kernel. :) Today also saw decent (almost 50 seconds less!) improvement to boot time.
These reviews make me feel good. :) I got thanked by Sean Moss-Pultz (CEO of OpenMoko Inc.) himself, and have had developers give me info on changes, causes and plans for the distribution. It feels awesome to be able to help the project even though my coding skills are sorely lacking.
I'm a bit concerned about where to go from here. For the most part, my reviews cover the major functionality of the device. Phone calls, SMS messages and media capability. I don't touch GPS because it requires non-free.
There are applications that I don't review also because I consider them less than critical (like the fact that there are 4 sudoko games) but at this point I'm thinking that I have time to check the "less than critical" things. I also really want to begin moving into building a realistic, step-by-step wishlist. The audio system is in place now so the phone rings, but most people consider multiple ringtones a basic feature. Profiles are also pretty basic (phone in vibrate only mode, for instance) and don't exist.
I've asked the device-owners list to give input on how to improve the review and where to go from here. :)
OpenMoko Snapshot Review - 13 Feb 2008
Yesterday I forgot my USB cable so my phone died and I was unable to flash the 12 Feb 2008 image. No review. :)
Today's marked the first 2.6.24 kernel in the official OpenMoko snapshot pool. It also broke quite a bit because the rootfs contains the 2.6.22 kernel modules. :)
Phone functions didn't work, SMS didn't work and my 1GB media card didn't work so the ability to play music has been greatly decreased.
General users are urged to stay with the 11 Feb 2008 snapshots while moderate to advanced users are urged to test and report on the new snapshots.
Today's marked the first 2.6.24 kernel in the official OpenMoko snapshot pool. It also broke quite a bit because the rootfs contains the 2.6.22 kernel modules. :)
Phone functions didn't work, SMS didn't work and my 1GB media card didn't work so the ability to play music has been greatly decreased.
General users are urged to stay with the 11 Feb 2008 snapshots while moderate to advanced users are urged to test and report on the new snapshots.
OpenMoko Snapshot Review - 11 Feb 2008
The daily images were not built while the staff of OpenMoko Inc enjoyed the time off for the Chinese New Year. :) Now that the holidays are over, OpenMoko images have resumed.
The full review can be found at http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Snapshot_review/2008-02-11
The biggest change today comes in the form of improved sound. The review hits on this when I mentioned that ambient noise is echoed a LOT less, and that the "air" sound is gone. Another undocumented improvement is that sound volume of the ringtone is now good, meaning I can hear the ring of the phone while in my car with music up loud. :)
Erin Yueh of OpenMoko has also submitted instructions to the OpenMoko device-owners mailing list on how to remove the crappy multi-tap input and replace it with the matchbox keyboard. While neither solution is good (both are considered horrible and where one lacks features that makes it useable, the other has bugs that makes it unusable) I personally prefer the matchbox keyboard.
I've also ammended the review process in regard to GPS. On the Neo1973 GPS requires the use of a non-free driver, and efforts to reverse engineer it are horrifically understaffed. For this reason, GPS doesn't work out of the box. Despite some community members insisting on providing this information in the review, I consider the use of non-free software to be unethical AND contrary to the stated mission of OpenMoko - my reviews now reflect this by adding in three new critera for reviewing of GPS functionality.
For the record, the GTA02 (OpenMoko Freerunner) has corrected this problem, and the GPS on it "speaks" standard protocol so no driver is needed to make it work.
My recommendation is that Neo users upgrade to the 11 Feb 2008 image to reap benefit from the improved audio settings.
The full review can be found at http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Snapshot_review/2008-02-11
The biggest change today comes in the form of improved sound. The review hits on this when I mentioned that ambient noise is echoed a LOT less, and that the "air" sound is gone. Another undocumented improvement is that sound volume of the ringtone is now good, meaning I can hear the ring of the phone while in my car with music up loud. :)
Erin Yueh of OpenMoko has also submitted instructions to the OpenMoko device-owners mailing list on how to remove the crappy multi-tap input and replace it with the matchbox keyboard. While neither solution is good (both are considered horrible and where one lacks features that makes it useable, the other has bugs that makes it unusable) I personally prefer the matchbox keyboard.
I've also ammended the review process in regard to GPS. On the Neo1973 GPS requires the use of a non-free driver, and efforts to reverse engineer it are horrifically understaffed. For this reason, GPS doesn't work out of the box. Despite some community members insisting on providing this information in the review, I consider the use of non-free software to be unethical AND contrary to the stated mission of OpenMoko - my reviews now reflect this by adding in three new critera for reviewing of GPS functionality.
For the record, the GTA02 (OpenMoko Freerunner) has corrected this problem, and the GPS on it "speaks" standard protocol so no driver is needed to make it work.
My recommendation is that Neo users upgrade to the 11 Feb 2008 image to reap benefit from the improved audio settings.
Meet Bluebeard
I've been obsessed for a while. Last night I finally did it: I bought an Element.
I ended up driving 8 hours to get him but I got him and that's all that matters to me. :D
The drive from New Jersey to Maryland got him quite dirty and today I gave him (and 'Bu) a bath but it was SO cold that the rinse water froze.
I've transfered all of my stuff from 'Bu to Bluebeard now and this image shows the servers in there.
I'm happy!
I ended up driving 8 hours to get him but I got him and that's all that matters to me. :D
The drive from New Jersey to Maryland got him quite dirty and today I gave him (and 'Bu) a bath but it was SO cold that the rinse water froze.
I've transfered all of my stuff from 'Bu to Bluebeard now and this image shows the servers in there.
I'm happy!
All about cars...
Lindsay (my wife, for those of you who don't know) has been without a car for almost a year now, since her last one, Patches, died.
This lack has been wearing on her and we began the hunt to find her the perfect car in the perfect price range. For a while, this hinged on the Honda Civic hatchback since being a hatchback was one of her requirements. We discovered over time that the Civic simply wouldn't work. Lindsay still wanted it, but her logical side told her no.
Even more, it told her she wouldn't be happy with any purchase since she was still undecided with exactly what she wanted.
Last week Lindsay gave me the directive "Find an Element". If you know I am an Element fanatic. Don't ask my why but I've been in love with that vehicle since I test drove it on a whim looking for cars for big guys. Since then, I've been a memeber of the Element Owners Club and I've even got an Element section of my photo gallery.
Come Thursday evening I was informed I'd been approved for financing on an Element and I'm THRILLED! After SO long not having one, I am gonna get one. Yay!
The fact that I'm getting an Element is awesome, to the point where it even overshadows what SHOULD be better news... I paid off 'Bu. :) I felt pressured into buying Bu many years ago and have come, for the most part, to resent that car. On Friday, I did an early payoff on it and it is MINE. This makes room in the budget for the Element, and gives Lindsay a car to drive.
I haven't really slept a whole night since being told I was approved. :)
This lack has been wearing on her and we began the hunt to find her the perfect car in the perfect price range. For a while, this hinged on the Honda Civic hatchback since being a hatchback was one of her requirements. We discovered over time that the Civic simply wouldn't work. Lindsay still wanted it, but her logical side told her no.
Even more, it told her she wouldn't be happy with any purchase since she was still undecided with exactly what she wanted.
Last week Lindsay gave me the directive "Find an Element". If you know I am an Element fanatic. Don't ask my why but I've been in love with that vehicle since I test drove it on a whim looking for cars for big guys. Since then, I've been a memeber of the Element Owners Club and I've even got an Element section of my photo gallery.
Come Thursday evening I was informed I'd been approved for financing on an Element and I'm THRILLED! After SO long not having one, I am gonna get one. Yay!
The fact that I'm getting an Element is awesome, to the point where it even overshadows what SHOULD be better news... I paid off 'Bu. :) I felt pressured into buying Bu many years ago and have come, for the most part, to resent that car. On Friday, I did an early payoff on it and it is MINE. This makes room in the budget for the Element, and gives Lindsay a car to drive.
I haven't really slept a whole night since being told I was approved. :)
OpenMoko Daily Snapshot Review 31 Jan 2008
I finished my OpenMoko review today. In general, this image is good.
The full review can be read at http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Snapshot_review/2008-01-31
Boot time is back in line.
SMS works.
Calls work (but still require "the fix" for good sound quality on my side).
Media player works for audio, still no video (and it may never happen on GTA01)
Battery life seems decently improved but still not "good". No hard and fast tests done there.
My recommendation is for all Neo users to use this image, it's the best thus far. :)
The full review can be read at http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Snapshot_review/2008-01-31
Boot time is back in line.
SMS works.
Calls work (but still require "the fix" for good sound quality on my side).
Media player works for audio, still no video (and it may never happen on GTA01)
Battery life seems decently improved but still not "good". No hard and fast tests done there.
My recommendation is for all Neo users to use this image, it's the best thus far. :)
OpenMoko Snapshot Review - 30 Jan 2008
Today I reviewed the 30 January 2008 rootfs and kernel images.
Overall, this was a giant leap backwards. Stability has suffered which prevents the use of SMS to the fullest and prevents the use of media playback.
In addition, I found and reported a bug where missed calls were reported twice.
Bootup time jumped up by about 40 seconds.
In general, I suggest NOT flashing the 30 January image, preferring the 29th. The kernel is, as far as I can tell from the filenames, unchanged.
Overall, this was a giant leap backwards. Stability has suffered which prevents the use of SMS to the fullest and prevents the use of media playback.
In addition, I found and reported a bug where missed calls were reported twice.
Bootup time jumped up by about 40 seconds.
In general, I suggest NOT flashing the 30 January image, preferring the 29th. The kernel is, as far as I can tell from the filenames, unchanged.
OpenMoko Snapshot Review - 29 Jan 2008
I've noticed that many people who own Neo1973 devices simply don't update every day. There are several ways to do this, one being the apt-get reminiscent application called ipkg (or opkg, the official OpenMoko fork). Another way, particularly useful in rolling distros (like Debian or OpenMoko) is to install a new image.
I choose to install fresh Debian images every weekend and I choose to install fresh OpenMoko images every day. Since people are reluctant to flash a non-working image (which would erase all of their contacts, scripts and hacks) frequently I decided I'd begin documenting it when I do.
Today, I published my first review of the OpenMoko snapshots, since it's finally good enough for me to use daily as a phone and SMS device.
http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Snapshot_review/2008-01-29
I'll summarize them here, but the real good stuff is in the wiki. :)
Summary:
Sound quality on the phone sucks because it picks up ambient noise, luckily a fix has been identitifed!
The multi-touch input method sucks, I think.
Video playback is half-there, i.e. Audio only.
Music playback is better and improving, a LOT less skipping versus a week ago. There's a hack to do even more.
Calendar mostly works.
SMS works.
I choose to install fresh Debian images every weekend and I choose to install fresh OpenMoko images every day. Since people are reluctant to flash a non-working image (which would erase all of their contacts, scripts and hacks) frequently I decided I'd begin documenting it when I do.
Today, I published my first review of the OpenMoko snapshots, since it's finally good enough for me to use daily as a phone and SMS device.
http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Snapshot_review/2008-01-29
I'll summarize them here, but the real good stuff is in the wiki. :)
Summary:
Sound quality on the phone sucks because it picks up ambient noise, luckily a fix has been identitifed!
The multi-touch input method sucks, I think.
Video playback is half-there, i.e. Audio only.
Music playback is better and improving, a LOT less skipping versus a week ago. There's a hack to do even more.
Calendar mostly works.
SMS works.
Anatomy of an OpenMoko Application
There seems to be some confusion with exactly what OpenMoko is.
The most simple explanation is that OpenMoko is a software framework designed to empower users of mobile devices. OpenMoko is to the Neo1973 what Gnome is to a PC. The analogy is particularly fitting, since Gnome and OpenMoko are both GTK based.
Keeping with this analogy, another "environment" that can be found on the Neo1973 is Trolltech's QTopia which is, like KDE, based on QT.
Most of the hype around the Neo is because of OpenMoko (or perhaps the other way, without OpenMoko the Neo would be ignored) and OpenMoko is what my personal interest is in so I will begin today by explaining just what is "in" an OpenMoko application from the perspective of a user.
Below is an image of the "home" screen, the starting point for all OpenMoko adventures.
The very top of this image is the "taskbar". A closer examination is below.
In the section that displays the words T-Mobile" is the name of the application you're using. On the home page, this displays the name of the GSM network you're connected to. In this case you see "T-Mobile" since that is my cellular carrier. When the phone is first booted (or when GSM is first turned on) this may say “Registering...” as the phone searches for your network.
To the right of the words "T-Mobile" is a kind of dashboard or system tray. The first icon is of a small keyboard, clicking this brings up the matchbox keyboard, used for entering text. If the keyboard is open, clicking this icon will close it.
The icon directly to the right of the keyboard is the Bluetooth Logo. Clicking this icon brings up a menu allowing you to "Power up Bluetooth radio", "Power off Bluetooth radio" or check "Bluetooth Status". This allows you to shut off unneeded Bluetooth capability for added security or to preserve battery life.
To the right of the Bluetooth logo is a USB icon. This icon indicates that a USB cable has been plugged in that is capable of transmitting data. This icon does not appear when “dumb” USB-style cables, such as car chargers, have been plugged in. Tapping on this icon does not present the user with options, it is there only as an indicator.
The next icon represents the GPS menu. As of today this icon does nothing and is not representitive of the GPS's status.
Next to the GPS icon is a GSM signal meter. Most mobile phones have an indicator like this, showing the relative strength of the cellular signal they have. Typically, the more bars you have, the stronger your signal and the more clear and stable your phone conversations would be.
To the right of the signal meter is the battery indicator. This indicator shows roughly how much power your battery has remaining to power your device. A fully filled green battery icon indicates full charge where an icon that is not filled would be almost powerless. This icon can indicate various intermittent states. When connected to a powered USB cable the phone enters “Quick Charge” mode and this icon displays a white zig-zag lightening bolt image.
Below the taskbar is an action panel. This panel varies from application to application but in general it indicates actions a user may take. On the home screen, these actions are, from left-to-right:
Launch the “Dialer” application (Make a call)
Launch the “Contacts” application (View your address book)
Launch the “Messages” application (Send and read SMS Messages)
Launch the “Tasks” application (Set or view important events)
Below the launcher is the main body which contains a digital clock and the date.
In addition to displaying the time and date, this pane will display notification of missed calls below the date. This is the main area to present information to the user – what this section of the screen displays is highly dependent on the application that is currently running.
Tabs for your currently running application appear below this pane. These tabs are different depending on the running application but the concept behind them is uniform to all OpenMoko applications. For instance, the Dialer application has two modes, a keypad mode and a list of all past calls. This section has two buttons in the tabs panel to switch between these modes. I will go in-depth regarding options with each specific application later.
The most simple explanation is that OpenMoko is a software framework designed to empower users of mobile devices. OpenMoko is to the Neo1973 what Gnome is to a PC. The analogy is particularly fitting, since Gnome and OpenMoko are both GTK based.
Keeping with this analogy, another "environment" that can be found on the Neo1973 is Trolltech's QTopia which is, like KDE, based on QT.
Most of the hype around the Neo is because of OpenMoko (or perhaps the other way, without OpenMoko the Neo would be ignored) and OpenMoko is what my personal interest is in so I will begin today by explaining just what is "in" an OpenMoko application from the perspective of a user.
Below is an image of the "home" screen, the starting point for all OpenMoko adventures.
The very top of this image is the "taskbar". A closer examination is below.
In the section that displays the words T-Mobile" is the name of the application you're using. On the home page, this displays the name of the GSM network you're connected to. In this case you see "T-Mobile" since that is my cellular carrier. When the phone is first booted (or when GSM is first turned on) this may say “Registering...” as the phone searches for your network.
To the right of the words "T-Mobile" is a kind of dashboard or system tray. The first icon is of a small keyboard, clicking this brings up the matchbox keyboard, used for entering text. If the keyboard is open, clicking this icon will close it.
The icon directly to the right of the keyboard is the Bluetooth Logo. Clicking this icon brings up a menu allowing you to "Power up Bluetooth radio", "Power off Bluetooth radio" or check "Bluetooth Status". This allows you to shut off unneeded Bluetooth capability for added security or to preserve battery life.
To the right of the Bluetooth logo is a USB icon. This icon indicates that a USB cable has been plugged in that is capable of transmitting data. This icon does not appear when “dumb” USB-style cables, such as car chargers, have been plugged in. Tapping on this icon does not present the user with options, it is there only as an indicator.
The next icon represents the GPS menu. As of today this icon does nothing and is not representitive of the GPS's status.
Next to the GPS icon is a GSM signal meter. Most mobile phones have an indicator like this, showing the relative strength of the cellular signal they have. Typically, the more bars you have, the stronger your signal and the more clear and stable your phone conversations would be.
To the right of the signal meter is the battery indicator. This indicator shows roughly how much power your battery has remaining to power your device. A fully filled green battery icon indicates full charge where an icon that is not filled would be almost powerless. This icon can indicate various intermittent states. When connected to a powered USB cable the phone enters “Quick Charge” mode and this icon displays a white zig-zag lightening bolt image.
Below the taskbar is an action panel. This panel varies from application to application but in general it indicates actions a user may take. On the home screen, these actions are, from left-to-right:
Launch the “Dialer” application (Make a call)
Launch the “Contacts” application (View your address book)
Launch the “Messages” application (Send and read SMS Messages)
Launch the “Tasks” application (Set or view important events)
Below the launcher is the main body which contains a digital clock and the date.
In addition to displaying the time and date, this pane will display notification of missed calls below the date. This is the main area to present information to the user – what this section of the screen displays is highly dependent on the application that is currently running.
Tabs for your currently running application appear below this pane. These tabs are different depending on the running application but the concept behind them is uniform to all OpenMoko applications. For instance, the Dialer application has two modes, a keypad mode and a list of all past calls. This section has two buttons in the tabs panel to switch between these modes. I will go in-depth regarding options with each specific application later.
Power from a different angle
Today is day three with my Neo1973. It is well know by owners of the Neo and members of the OpenMoko development community that the GTA01 suffers many power management issues. Today, I got the first taste of those issues myself when I forgot my USB cable.
The Neo runs on a "basic" mobile battery and it packs a devent punch. A sharp touch screen, GPS, GSM, Bluetooth, speakers and a backlight. In addition, the CPU and memory consume power as they're used. This means, without proper power management systems on the OpenMoko platform, the Neo's battery life is rather short - in my case, about 5 hours.
There's another problem - the power controller firmware doesn't flag "critical" use - what this means is rather than shutting down when the phone's power gets to 5% it will continue to draw power, right until the battery is 100% drained and the system dies - or as SpeedEvil says, "rests" - mercilessly. Why is this so important? Because the Neo has an advantage called "Quick Charge" - when powered on (i.e. running the Linux kernel) it is able to tap the full power it recieves in the USB charging port resulting in a faster charge. However, when the phone is NOT running Linux (dead or running the bootloader, u-boot) it draws about 1/5th of that power resulting in painfully slow charges. So a phone that has "rested" totally need to be slow charged for about an hour before it has enough power to boot into Linux and enable quick charge.
The promising part is the reasons for the total battery death are know and can and will be fixed over time. That's not so much of an important thing.
What IS important to me is that pondering on this caused a paradigm shift. Having been a GNU/Linux user for the past several years (almost a half decade now?) I've seen several Linux kernel release announcements from the exciting release of KVM to things I considered mundane - drive I/O improvements or some such.
One specific area I've always deemed unimportant - power management. Up until recently, it never mattered to me as I'm a full-time desktop user. I hate laptops and have always found them to be novelties. Now, having really looked at how dramatic this is on my Neo, I have a new appreciation for the time and energy that kernel hackers put into these things - and I realize that every patch submittited is someone else's "power management"; their issues that everyone else is oblivious to.
Taking this track along a bit more, I realized just how powerful the Free Software community is. Until today, I've never thought about power on my computer before. The more CPU speed needed, the more power it consumes. The more memory swaps, the more power. More HD? Bright screen? MORE POWER!
My friend Danijel finds a connect between being a geek and "being green" - I do not. Personally, I feel that the concept of Global Warming (implying it's our 'fault' and that we actually have the capacity to screw a planet over in under a hundred years - or more crazily, that we have the capacity to "fix" it if such things were true) to be laughable. I don't, however, think we can ignore issues of pollution, energy consumption and waste - just the opposite in fact. I think these issues are SO important that, like Freedom, they should be addressed on their merits alone, without propaganda scare tactics of an impending global catastrophy to motivate people to do something about it.
That said, until today, my eyes were closed to the sheer about of waste generated by shitty code. The FSF has been pushing that angle for a little while with the Bad Vista campaign, but this isn't an attack on Vista because it applies to us - users of software libre - just as much. How much electricity are we wasting because of crappily optimized code?
Think about this for a moment... There are datacenters FULL of servers on redundant power systems. Each of these servers is running some sort of AMP stack, spinning hard drives and swapping bits around in memory. If Apache itself has a bug that causes just a bit of unneeded movement it has a cascading effect running 24 hours a day on hundreds of machines. How much energy is being consumed because a developer didn't think about being efficient while writing his code?
Free Software users and developers have an added kind of power, the power to consume less. The amount of waste generated by that hypothetical Apache bug is decently large, but imagine now if the bug was in Linux itself - now it's affecting desktop users and laptop users as well as a lot of servers. This isn't merely a case of "bloat" because even on very slim, "minimal" systems it's possible to be doing more than is strictly needed.
We all need to expand our horizons sometimes and I'm glad for having the chance to have done it here with the Neo - it makes me feel powerful. :) Pun intended, unless it's tacky. Then I won't own up to it.
The Neo runs on a "basic" mobile battery and it packs a devent punch. A sharp touch screen, GPS, GSM, Bluetooth, speakers and a backlight. In addition, the CPU and memory consume power as they're used. This means, without proper power management systems on the OpenMoko platform, the Neo's battery life is rather short - in my case, about 5 hours.
There's another problem - the power controller firmware doesn't flag "critical" use - what this means is rather than shutting down when the phone's power gets to 5% it will continue to draw power, right until the battery is 100% drained and the system dies - or as SpeedEvil says, "rests" - mercilessly. Why is this so important? Because the Neo has an advantage called "Quick Charge" - when powered on (i.e. running the Linux kernel) it is able to tap the full power it recieves in the USB charging port resulting in a faster charge. However, when the phone is NOT running Linux (dead or running the bootloader, u-boot) it draws about 1/5th of that power resulting in painfully slow charges. So a phone that has "rested" totally need to be slow charged for about an hour before it has enough power to boot into Linux and enable quick charge.
The promising part is the reasons for the total battery death are know and can and will be fixed over time. That's not so much of an important thing.
What IS important to me is that pondering on this caused a paradigm shift. Having been a GNU/Linux user for the past several years (almost a half decade now?) I've seen several Linux kernel release announcements from the exciting release of KVM to things I considered mundane - drive I/O improvements or some such.
One specific area I've always deemed unimportant - power management. Up until recently, it never mattered to me as I'm a full-time desktop user. I hate laptops and have always found them to be novelties. Now, having really looked at how dramatic this is on my Neo, I have a new appreciation for the time and energy that kernel hackers put into these things - and I realize that every patch submittited is someone else's "power management"; their issues that everyone else is oblivious to.
Taking this track along a bit more, I realized just how powerful the Free Software community is. Until today, I've never thought about power on my computer before. The more CPU speed needed, the more power it consumes. The more memory swaps, the more power. More HD? Bright screen? MORE POWER!
My friend Danijel finds a connect between being a geek and "being green" - I do not. Personally, I feel that the concept of Global Warming (implying it's our 'fault' and that we actually have the capacity to screw a planet over in under a hundred years - or more crazily, that we have the capacity to "fix" it if such things were true) to be laughable. I don't, however, think we can ignore issues of pollution, energy consumption and waste - just the opposite in fact. I think these issues are SO important that, like Freedom, they should be addressed on their merits alone, without propaganda scare tactics of an impending global catastrophy to motivate people to do something about it.
That said, until today, my eyes were closed to the sheer about of waste generated by shitty code. The FSF has been pushing that angle for a little while with the Bad Vista campaign, but this isn't an attack on Vista because it applies to us - users of software libre - just as much. How much electricity are we wasting because of crappily optimized code?
Think about this for a moment... There are datacenters FULL of servers on redundant power systems. Each of these servers is running some sort of AMP stack, spinning hard drives and swapping bits around in memory. If Apache itself has a bug that causes just a bit of unneeded movement it has a cascading effect running 24 hours a day on hundreds of machines. How much energy is being consumed because a developer didn't think about being efficient while writing his code?
Free Software users and developers have an added kind of power, the power to consume less. The amount of waste generated by that hypothetical Apache bug is decently large, but imagine now if the bug was in Linux itself - now it's affecting desktop users and laptop users as well as a lot of servers. This isn't merely a case of "bloat" because even on very slim, "minimal" systems it's possible to be doing more than is strictly needed.
We all need to expand our horizons sometimes and I'm glad for having the chance to have done it here with the Neo - it makes me feel powerful. :) Pun intended, unless it's tacky. Then I won't own up to it.
OpenMoko - My first impressions
On January 2nd, I purchased a Neo1973 Base from direct.openmoko.com.
My first interaction with FIC, the company that manufactures the Neo, was that of excitement. They have a decently beautiful site that highlights exactly why one would want the Neo – freedom, hackability, being on the cutting edge and having a sexy looking device. I felt no qualms at all with inputting my credit card number and shipping info. Immediately I got a confirmation via e-mail and everything was good.
As I waited excitedly the next day, checking my e-mail every few minutes to see if the confirmation had arrived (did I mention I was excited?) I began to get a bit annoyed by the end of the day. I then checked out the OpenMoko Wiki and found some information regarding the shipping procedure. I found there two things of interest:
Firstly, the price listed on direct.openmoko.com is an estimate. FIC is based in Taiwan, not the USA, so the USD amount I saw was the “target” - they would actually charge my debit card in New Taiwan Dollars in an amount equal to the current exchange rate.
The second thing I learned was that order processing took 3 to 5 days. Okay, “fine” I told myself. I could restrain my excitement.
It wasn't until January 8th my debit card was actually charged and I received confirmation that my order was processing. Perhaps I'm spoiled by NewEgg's wonderful shipping procedure but I consider a 6 day turn-around to be horrific. In addition to being a software libre geek, I am also a home brewer. In home brewing I deal with specialty supply shops to purchase my hops, grains and yeast. Some of these shops are run by retired military vets with little internet experience and some are decently skilled in the internet but in any case they can still manage to have my order packaged, shipped and at my door in a week – I fully expect a company called FIC (First International Computer) to have their order system automated enough to process orders efficiently. I console myself with the notion that they've got a room full of hackers plugging away to get the GTA02 “mass market ready” who simply can't be bothered to check e-mail and fill out UPS invoices.
Later that night I got confirmation that my package had shipped via UPS and included was a tracking number. I excitedly (again, did I mention how excited I was?) plugged the tracking number in to UPS's site and found that my package would be delivered on... the 14th! Have I really been THAT spoiled by NewEgg? I had debated over getting “expedited” shipping on one of many forms, but I decided against it - “standard” UPS shipping was decently fast, I reasoned. I guess not – this package was going to take almost a week more to get to me from California (for the record, NewEgg ships from Whittier, CA most of the time too). It seems NewEgg's “standard” shipping is NOT UPS's “standard” - lesson learned.
The weekend wait for the Neo was pretty easy, I managed to brew a beer on Sunday using my new Barley Crusher, so time went by rather quickly. Sunday night I decided that I was going to drive my wife to work, and rather than go to work myself immediately, I would drive BACK home and await the Neo's arrival. Luckily, my job offers enough flexibility that I'm able to do that without much issue.
At 11:09 am, my Neo arrived. My decision to return home was a good one – FIC ordered a signature before delivery. I normally HATE when companies do that (With 6 hour long delivery windows I can't afford to take a day off work to sign for a package. I work 55 miles from home so picking up my package from a UPS facility ALSO requires I miss work. Sign for packages = bad). In this case, however, I was a bit happy, since it was a rather expensive shipment – and I was pretty sure insurance wasn't part of UPS's “standard” shipping either.
Above is the box that arrived at my door. It was a pretty plain box, no fancy buzzers or bells (I truly didn't expect them but I have to make this dramatic – did I mentioned I was EXCITED?) and attached to the top was a packaging slip. I opened the box with my keys to find that there were blocks of very thick black foam covering packing peanuts. Buried beneath the peanuts was a bubble-wrap packed white box. This foam was very thick and in general the whole thing was well packed.
Inside the bubble wrap was a clamshell box that I thought was inventive. My wife has been in the printing industry since high-school so printing and packaging are her passions, I suppose it's rubbed off on me.
Once opened the clamshell splits again (once each way) to reveal the “goodies” that I've been so long awaiting.
I won't go over every piece in the box but every piece has been photographed by me, if you're interested in seeing those images please check out the OpenMoko album of my image gallery. The Neo handset itself was enshrined in the familiar anti-static anti-UV bags but it was the first time I'd personally seen self-adhesive anti-static bag – it was kind of neat.
All of the contents of the clamshell unpacked. There's the carrying case, lanyard, headset, spare ear buds, USB cable, stylus, battery, memory card and Neo handset.
While photographing the handset, I noticed that the screen itself seemed very reflective and I often saw myself in my own shots. This worried me, since I figured if it reflected my image it would also have horrible issues with glare when in normal use.
Eager to “get on with it” I held down the POWER button for about 4 seconds and the phone gave the smallest of shudders as the vibrator pulsed for a moment and the screen flickered to life. For anyone who has read articles about OpenMoko on the Neo you've heard “the screen is nice” but it's impossible to take a picture that shows exactly how sharp this screen is. When the backlight came on I was greeted with a black and orange splash screen which quickly gave way to a “typical” Linux boot up – Tux at top and white text on a black background. As small as the text was it was still remarkably clear – just so small it's hard to read.
The Wiki explains this very clearly, so I wasn't alarmed by it, but the very first boot ends in a kernel panic. The “simple” answer is that there's no software other than the Linux kernel and the boot loader (u-boot) itself, so it fails to load anything. End users won't have this happen to them (OpenMoko will be DOA if it's required) but developers will have to flash their own kernel, root file system (rootfs) and (potentially) u-boot image.
At this point, I realized I was “pushing it” by not going to work, so I packed up my Neo and accessories, uploaded my pictures to my wife's Ubuntu system, crashed it and then went over to my Debian system to burn my newly taken Moko images to CD and then went to work.
At work I began my “flashing” after reading up on the Wiki. What was slightly confusing for me was the out-of-date nature of the Wiki. While it's pretty clear once you understand some terminology for someone “new” it can be quite scary – the term “bricking your device” is used enough to scare the hell out of me and I'm fairly comfortable tinkering with “internals”. A quick post to #openmoko on Freenode led me to a how to find daily build images page which kicked me over to buildhost. The recommendation I got was pretty much “Use the newest images” - this makes a TON of sense since the software is rapidly changing.
Flashing the Neo itself was a trivial task and I suppose it will get even easier once the OpenMoko build tools become packaged for popular distros like Debian and Ubuntu. In my case, it meant plugging in the USB cable to my computer and my Neo, downloading dfu-util and compiling it – the whole process took about 30 second so it's a FAST compile as well as simple. I then downloaded the uImage file and the rootfs image for the GTA01 (about 48 MB combined), launched u-boot (hold AUX, power the Neo on) and issued one command to flash the kernel to the Neo. The second command flashed the rootfs to the Neo – a slightly longer process that took about 13 minutes. The downside to this flash is that once the phone enters u-Boot mode it will power down after 60 seconds of inactivity and it doesn't consider USB transfer to be “activity”. This means every 45 seconds or so I pressed the AUX button to keep things “alive”. I'm sure I looked stupid to my office mate, but oh well. (For the record, there IS a solution for this but I was excited and just wanted the thing to work).
Once the flashing was complete I restarted the Neo and it booted without problems (no kernel panic!). This time, once the splash screen was done I was greeted with a whimsical sounding chime (audio works!) and the phone proceeded to load my home page.
At this point I hadn't charged the device or installed the SIM or microSD cards, so I powered down, installed them and powered back up. The Neo doesn't do a “quick charge” unless the device is powered on so unless it's totally dead, it needs to be on to charge.
I worked on “work stuff” for a few hours before turning my attention back to my Neo. This time I decided I'd play with GSM and attempt to make a phone call. This entire time the top toolbar was saying “Registering...” which alarmed me – was my SIM card incompatible? There is currently an open bug pertaining to 3G SIM cards (mainly AT&T ones, but possibly others) and I was afraid mine was affected. I pulled opened the GSM quick menu (at the top of the screen it looks like a Triforce-on-a-stick) and clicked “Auto-register with network” which I assumed it would have already done. The phone sat there, still displaying “Registering” while I went into the applications menu and fired up a terminal (ain't it sweet? CLI on my phone!). To see what was happening, I issues a “dmesg” and almost immediately I got a popup (it looks very “Gnome”-like) indicating I was connected to my T-Mobile network.
At this point, I opened up the dialer and punched in what I thought was my phone number (to check my voice mail ) and was a bit shocked... Someone answered! It happened to be my wife (my phone number ends in 7446, hers 7445) and we both chuckled. I noticed two things about the call. Firstly, I can very much hear “air” through the ear piece. It is my understanding that as of this moment there's no noise-canceling software of the phone so the microphone picks up (and sends) everything. The second was that even without noise canceling software, the call quality was comparable to a “regular” phone – at least in the mid-range phones I'm used to dealing with.
On the ride home from work, I excitedly showed my wife the Neo. She's super supportive of me and my obsessions with brewing, computers and freedom, so she was poking at it inquisitively rather than finding “broken” things to criticize like some people would (especially after what I paid for it). While I had focused on the phone, the interface and the hardware the first thing she did was find the games menu. I have to hand it to the interface designers on this one – either I've been clueless or they did their research. While I have to poke and prod to find a “rhythm” to menus my wife was able to find and launch some games so fast I was amazed – and even remarked on it.
She played several games like the Mastermind clone, a game called “Maps” which seems like fun where you fill in oddly-shaped tiles so that no two touching tiles are the same color. Her initial impressions were very good, actually. Her complaint was that some of the games are horribly optimized for the device. Sudoku, for example, is almost useless without the stylus (Input options are 0-9, a keypad would work MUCH better than a matchbox keyboard).
Once home I hit my computer with the Neo and began “playing” with it. I pulled up my address book from my old phone and began inputting my contacts and phone numbers. This is where I found the most “buggy” functionality. I then moved to trying to send an SMS message to a friend which didn't fail, but didn't work either.
Having those two things fail (after some prodding, too) I decided to see what this thing could do in terms of media. I transfered a song, via netcat, to the memory card and launched the Media Player app. Playing the song failed at first, so I rebooted the device (certainly not needed, like any GNU/Linux system I could have restarted the sound system or investigated WHY it wasn't playing but this was a learning exercise more than a troubleshooting one) and relaunched the media player, this time “Turn On, Switch Off” played from my Neo. I attached the headphones and the sound switched with a 1 second delay. The headphones crackle. I believe this is a manufacturing issue and NOT a software one, it sounds as if my cord is frayed and introducing signal-noise. I recall reading another complaint of this. I very much plan on replacing the headphones this week for that reason but since it doesn't “crackle” unless I move I can use them for learning over the next few days.
Applications began crashing at that point and my brain's “troubleshooting” mode kicked in. About a minute later I found that I was using 100% disk space – somehow my microSD card WASN'T detected or mounted and I'd copied a 13 MB file to a space-limited filesystem. Oops.
I deleted my music file and proceeded to set up USB networking (well documented in the Wiki). I immediately installed nano, my text editor of choice, and then SSHed into the Neo from my Debian system. This is much easier than typing on the on screen keyboard, but mainly because it's more familiar. Then, using the Neo handset I launched the web browser to see how well it worked.
The browser is WebKit based which is pretty cool. It renders my site pretty well and renders MOST sites pretty well. Some sites, however, look a little smooshed. In time people will be forced to design sites for "the mobile web" as well - and standards compliance makes this easier - but for the most part, the internet will still be usable on the Neo's browser. I haven't figured out how to do it yet but tilting the phone into landcape mode may help a lot. This should be done automatically on the Freerunner, kind of like the iPhone does, with a simple tilt of the device. The GTA01, however, doesn't have accelerometers so switching orientation is a manual process.
Over all, my first day with my Neo was fantastic. The phone works at least as good as my old Motorola RAZR did after a year and it's powered by Free Software – it's already a winner. Over time, this system will improve and I plan on watching it while it does, sticking my hand in where possible. The excitement hasn't left me yet, but my desire to “make it my own” is growing now and I've already found some “issues” I can investigate. :)
I'll have plenty of happy hacking ahead of me. During this time, I'll review OpenMoko software more completely, breaking down individual applications at a time. I'll hopefully be able to write some "official" documentation as well as fix simple things in the source as my skill with programming improves (my second reason for buying the Neo).
My first interaction with FIC, the company that manufactures the Neo, was that of excitement. They have a decently beautiful site that highlights exactly why one would want the Neo – freedom, hackability, being on the cutting edge and having a sexy looking device. I felt no qualms at all with inputting my credit card number and shipping info. Immediately I got a confirmation via e-mail and everything was good.
As I waited excitedly the next day, checking my e-mail every few minutes to see if the confirmation had arrived (did I mention I was excited?) I began to get a bit annoyed by the end of the day. I then checked out the OpenMoko Wiki and found some information regarding the shipping procedure. I found there two things of interest:
Firstly, the price listed on direct.openmoko.com is an estimate. FIC is based in Taiwan, not the USA, so the USD amount I saw was the “target” - they would actually charge my debit card in New Taiwan Dollars in an amount equal to the current exchange rate.
The second thing I learned was that order processing took 3 to 5 days. Okay, “fine” I told myself. I could restrain my excitement.
It wasn't until January 8th my debit card was actually charged and I received confirmation that my order was processing. Perhaps I'm spoiled by NewEgg's wonderful shipping procedure but I consider a 6 day turn-around to be horrific. In addition to being a software libre geek, I am also a home brewer. In home brewing I deal with specialty supply shops to purchase my hops, grains and yeast. Some of these shops are run by retired military vets with little internet experience and some are decently skilled in the internet but in any case they can still manage to have my order packaged, shipped and at my door in a week – I fully expect a company called FIC (First International Computer) to have their order system automated enough to process orders efficiently. I console myself with the notion that they've got a room full of hackers plugging away to get the GTA02 “mass market ready” who simply can't be bothered to check e-mail and fill out UPS invoices.
Later that night I got confirmation that my package had shipped via UPS and included was a tracking number. I excitedly (again, did I mention how excited I was?) plugged the tracking number in to UPS's site and found that my package would be delivered on... the 14th! Have I really been THAT spoiled by NewEgg? I had debated over getting “expedited” shipping on one of many forms, but I decided against it - “standard” UPS shipping was decently fast, I reasoned. I guess not – this package was going to take almost a week more to get to me from California (for the record, NewEgg ships from Whittier, CA most of the time too). It seems NewEgg's “standard” shipping is NOT UPS's “standard” - lesson learned.
The weekend wait for the Neo was pretty easy, I managed to brew a beer on Sunday using my new Barley Crusher, so time went by rather quickly. Sunday night I decided that I was going to drive my wife to work, and rather than go to work myself immediately, I would drive BACK home and await the Neo's arrival. Luckily, my job offers enough flexibility that I'm able to do that without much issue.
At 11:09 am, my Neo arrived. My decision to return home was a good one – FIC ordered a signature before delivery. I normally HATE when companies do that (With 6 hour long delivery windows I can't afford to take a day off work to sign for a package. I work 55 miles from home so picking up my package from a UPS facility ALSO requires I miss work. Sign for packages = bad). In this case, however, I was a bit happy, since it was a rather expensive shipment – and I was pretty sure insurance wasn't part of UPS's “standard” shipping either.
Above is the box that arrived at my door. It was a pretty plain box, no fancy buzzers or bells (I truly didn't expect them but I have to make this dramatic – did I mentioned I was EXCITED?) and attached to the top was a packaging slip. I opened the box with my keys to find that there were blocks of very thick black foam covering packing peanuts. Buried beneath the peanuts was a bubble-wrap packed white box. This foam was very thick and in general the whole thing was well packed.
Inside the bubble wrap was a clamshell box that I thought was inventive. My wife has been in the printing industry since high-school so printing and packaging are her passions, I suppose it's rubbed off on me.
Once opened the clamshell splits again (once each way) to reveal the “goodies” that I've been so long awaiting.
I won't go over every piece in the box but every piece has been photographed by me, if you're interested in seeing those images please check out the OpenMoko album of my image gallery. The Neo handset itself was enshrined in the familiar anti-static anti-UV bags but it was the first time I'd personally seen self-adhesive anti-static bag – it was kind of neat.
All of the contents of the clamshell unpacked. There's the carrying case, lanyard, headset, spare ear buds, USB cable, stylus, battery, memory card and Neo handset.
While photographing the handset, I noticed that the screen itself seemed very reflective and I often saw myself in my own shots. This worried me, since I figured if it reflected my image it would also have horrible issues with glare when in normal use.
Eager to “get on with it” I held down the POWER button for about 4 seconds and the phone gave the smallest of shudders as the vibrator pulsed for a moment and the screen flickered to life. For anyone who has read articles about OpenMoko on the Neo you've heard “the screen is nice” but it's impossible to take a picture that shows exactly how sharp this screen is. When the backlight came on I was greeted with a black and orange splash screen which quickly gave way to a “typical” Linux boot up – Tux at top and white text on a black background. As small as the text was it was still remarkably clear – just so small it's hard to read.
The Wiki explains this very clearly, so I wasn't alarmed by it, but the very first boot ends in a kernel panic. The “simple” answer is that there's no software other than the Linux kernel and the boot loader (u-boot) itself, so it fails to load anything. End users won't have this happen to them (OpenMoko will be DOA if it's required) but developers will have to flash their own kernel, root file system (rootfs) and (potentially) u-boot image.
At this point, I realized I was “pushing it” by not going to work, so I packed up my Neo and accessories, uploaded my pictures to my wife's Ubuntu system, crashed it and then went over to my Debian system to burn my newly taken Moko images to CD and then went to work.
At work I began my “flashing” after reading up on the Wiki. What was slightly confusing for me was the out-of-date nature of the Wiki. While it's pretty clear once you understand some terminology for someone “new” it can be quite scary – the term “bricking your device” is used enough to scare the hell out of me and I'm fairly comfortable tinkering with “internals”. A quick post to #openmoko on Freenode led me to a how to find daily build images page which kicked me over to buildhost. The recommendation I got was pretty much “Use the newest images” - this makes a TON of sense since the software is rapidly changing.
Flashing the Neo itself was a trivial task and I suppose it will get even easier once the OpenMoko build tools become packaged for popular distros like Debian and Ubuntu. In my case, it meant plugging in the USB cable to my computer and my Neo, downloading dfu-util and compiling it – the whole process took about 30 second so it's a FAST compile as well as simple. I then downloaded the uImage file and the rootfs image for the GTA01 (about 48 MB combined), launched u-boot (hold AUX, power the Neo on) and issued one command to flash the kernel to the Neo. The second command flashed the rootfs to the Neo – a slightly longer process that took about 13 minutes. The downside to this flash is that once the phone enters u-Boot mode it will power down after 60 seconds of inactivity and it doesn't consider USB transfer to be “activity”. This means every 45 seconds or so I pressed the AUX button to keep things “alive”. I'm sure I looked stupid to my office mate, but oh well. (For the record, there IS a solution for this but I was excited and just wanted the thing to work).
Once the flashing was complete I restarted the Neo and it booted without problems (no kernel panic!). This time, once the splash screen was done I was greeted with a whimsical sounding chime (audio works!) and the phone proceeded to load my home page.
At this point I hadn't charged the device or installed the SIM or microSD cards, so I powered down, installed them and powered back up. The Neo doesn't do a “quick charge” unless the device is powered on so unless it's totally dead, it needs to be on to charge.
I worked on “work stuff” for a few hours before turning my attention back to my Neo. This time I decided I'd play with GSM and attempt to make a phone call. This entire time the top toolbar was saying “Registering...” which alarmed me – was my SIM card incompatible? There is currently an open bug pertaining to 3G SIM cards (mainly AT&T ones, but possibly others) and I was afraid mine was affected. I pulled opened the GSM quick menu (at the top of the screen it looks like a Triforce-on-a-stick) and clicked “Auto-register with network” which I assumed it would have already done. The phone sat there, still displaying “Registering” while I went into the applications menu and fired up a terminal (ain't it sweet? CLI on my phone!). To see what was happening, I issues a “dmesg” and almost immediately I got a popup (it looks very “Gnome”-like) indicating I was connected to my T-Mobile network.
At this point, I opened up the dialer and punched in what I thought was my phone number (to check my voice mail ) and was a bit shocked... Someone answered! It happened to be my wife (my phone number ends in 7446, hers 7445) and we both chuckled. I noticed two things about the call. Firstly, I can very much hear “air” through the ear piece. It is my understanding that as of this moment there's no noise-canceling software of the phone so the microphone picks up (and sends) everything. The second was that even without noise canceling software, the call quality was comparable to a “regular” phone – at least in the mid-range phones I'm used to dealing with.
On the ride home from work, I excitedly showed my wife the Neo. She's super supportive of me and my obsessions with brewing, computers and freedom, so she was poking at it inquisitively rather than finding “broken” things to criticize like some people would (especially after what I paid for it). While I had focused on the phone, the interface and the hardware the first thing she did was find the games menu. I have to hand it to the interface designers on this one – either I've been clueless or they did their research. While I have to poke and prod to find a “rhythm” to menus my wife was able to find and launch some games so fast I was amazed – and even remarked on it.
She played several games like the Mastermind clone, a game called “Maps” which seems like fun where you fill in oddly-shaped tiles so that no two touching tiles are the same color. Her initial impressions were very good, actually. Her complaint was that some of the games are horribly optimized for the device. Sudoku, for example, is almost useless without the stylus (Input options are 0-9, a keypad would work MUCH better than a matchbox keyboard).
Once home I hit my computer with the Neo and began “playing” with it. I pulled up my address book from my old phone and began inputting my contacts and phone numbers. This is where I found the most “buggy” functionality. I then moved to trying to send an SMS message to a friend which didn't fail, but didn't work either.
Having those two things fail (after some prodding, too) I decided to see what this thing could do in terms of media. I transfered a song, via netcat, to the memory card and launched the Media Player app. Playing the song failed at first, so I rebooted the device (certainly not needed, like any GNU/Linux system I could have restarted the sound system or investigated WHY it wasn't playing but this was a learning exercise more than a troubleshooting one) and relaunched the media player, this time “Turn On, Switch Off” played from my Neo. I attached the headphones and the sound switched with a 1 second delay. The headphones crackle. I believe this is a manufacturing issue and NOT a software one, it sounds as if my cord is frayed and introducing signal-noise. I recall reading another complaint of this. I very much plan on replacing the headphones this week for that reason but since it doesn't “crackle” unless I move I can use them for learning over the next few days.
Applications began crashing at that point and my brain's “troubleshooting” mode kicked in. About a minute later I found that I was using 100% disk space – somehow my microSD card WASN'T detected or mounted and I'd copied a 13 MB file to a space-limited filesystem. Oops.
I deleted my music file and proceeded to set up USB networking (well documented in the Wiki). I immediately installed nano, my text editor of choice, and then SSHed into the Neo from my Debian system. This is much easier than typing on the on screen keyboard, but mainly because it's more familiar. Then, using the Neo handset I launched the web browser to see how well it worked.
The browser is WebKit based which is pretty cool. It renders my site pretty well and renders MOST sites pretty well. Some sites, however, look a little smooshed. In time people will be forced to design sites for "the mobile web" as well - and standards compliance makes this easier - but for the most part, the internet will still be usable on the Neo's browser. I haven't figured out how to do it yet but tilting the phone into landcape mode may help a lot. This should be done automatically on the Freerunner, kind of like the iPhone does, with a simple tilt of the device. The GTA01, however, doesn't have accelerometers so switching orientation is a manual process.
Over all, my first day with my Neo was fantastic. The phone works at least as good as my old Motorola RAZR did after a year and it's powered by Free Software – it's already a winner. Over time, this system will improve and I plan on watching it while it does, sticking my hand in where possible. The excitement hasn't left me yet, but my desire to “make it my own” is growing now and I've already found some “issues” I can investigate. :)
I'll have plenty of happy hacking ahead of me. During this time, I'll review OpenMoko software more completely, breaking down individual applications at a time. I'll hopefully be able to write some "official" documentation as well as fix simple things in the source as my skill with programming improves (my second reason for buying the Neo).
After Months Of Waiting...
Having "played" with the OpenMoko development images in QEMU for a while, I finally decided to "pull the trigger" on a first-generation, "developer only" Neo1973. What makes this purchase so exciting to me is that I'm finally able to support a group of people working for Freedom and openness that try to meet that goal with a tangible product. The OpenMoko community is very supportive of Free Software and FIC itself, the company behind the Neo phone, considers, to it's core, Freedom to be crucial to a sane mobile world.
The Neo isn't ready for "everyone" yet and as of today there's no real idea when it will be ready. The next generation phone being "ready" is determined quite a bit by how well the software is polished on existing Neo phones. The plan is to release the GTA02 and the first "stable" OpenMoko software together: a respectable goal but one that won't come to fruitation until the GTA01 gets enough polish and I hope I can be of assistance to that.
You can certainly expect me to do reviews and provide information about the Neo1973 and OpenMoko itself as I get the device, use it and hack on it. I'm expecting problems with it, and gaps in the feature-set. "It's not ready" they say. Hrm... Where have I heard THAT one before?
The Neo isn't ready for "everyone" yet and as of today there's no real idea when it will be ready. The next generation phone being "ready" is determined quite a bit by how well the software is polished on existing Neo phones. The plan is to release the GTA02 and the first "stable" OpenMoko software together: a respectable goal but one that won't come to fruitation until the GTA01 gets enough polish and I hope I can be of assistance to that.
You can certainly expect me to do reviews and provide information about the Neo1973 and OpenMoko itself as I get the device, use it and hack on it. I'm expecting problems with it, and gaps in the feature-set. "It's not ready" they say. Hrm... Where have I heard THAT one before?
Wired Magazine “Doesn’t Get It”
This month’s issue of Wired Magazine had an article in it about LaLa, a CD swapping service.
In the article, Wired’s Cliff Kuang wrote “The arrangement exploits a loophole in copyright law: While distributing duplicates is verboten, it’s perfectly legal to trade your own property.”
The fact that the world has become so confused and brainwashed by copyright made me rather angry, so I decided to write a letter to the Editor of wired. My letter is below:
I am a subscriber to Wired magazine (or more specifically, my wife is). While reading over the issue this month, I saw a line in specific that brought me nearly to a rage.
Specifically, in Cliff Kuang’s article about Lala the line “The arrangement exploits a loophole in copyright law: While distributing duplicates is verboten, it’s perfectly legal to trade your own property.”
The world has been brainwashed by the concepts of “Intellectual Property” far too long, and this line has proven the point exactly. “Intellectual Property” is a fallacy, it specifically refers to three separate things, patent law, copyright law and trademark law. For years the RIAA and other copyright trolls have been trying to equate “sharing” with “stealing” (stealing deprives the owner of the use of a thing, sharing does not. Copying a digital song makes more, the owner still has the same control over their copy) and has been criticized by the geek and educated community.
To see, however, that a Wired writer has also been so badly brainwashed that he could imply that trading PHYSICAL PROPERTY is even remotely questionable makes me wonder just how “in touch” Wired actually is. Since the staff of Wired obviously don’t understand the political barriers faced by technology today, I will not be renewing my subscription, and urging others not to, unless Wired manages to change my opinion before it expires.
-Kevin Dean
In the article, Wired’s Cliff Kuang wrote “The arrangement exploits a loophole in copyright law: While distributing duplicates is verboten, it’s perfectly legal to trade your own property.”
The fact that the world has become so confused and brainwashed by copyright made me rather angry, so I decided to write a letter to the Editor of wired. My letter is below:
I am a subscriber to Wired magazine (or more specifically, my wife is). While reading over the issue this month, I saw a line in specific that brought me nearly to a rage.
Specifically, in Cliff Kuang’s article about Lala the line “The arrangement exploits a loophole in copyright law: While distributing duplicates is verboten, it’s perfectly legal to trade your own property.”
The world has been brainwashed by the concepts of “Intellectual Property” far too long, and this line has proven the point exactly. “Intellectual Property” is a fallacy, it specifically refers to three separate things, patent law, copyright law and trademark law. For years the RIAA and other copyright trolls have been trying to equate “sharing” with “stealing” (stealing deprives the owner of the use of a thing, sharing does not. Copying a digital song makes more, the owner still has the same control over their copy) and has been criticized by the geek and educated community.
To see, however, that a Wired writer has also been so badly brainwashed that he could imply that trading PHYSICAL PROPERTY is even remotely questionable makes me wonder just how “in touch” Wired actually is. Since the staff of Wired obviously don’t understand the political barriers faced by technology today, I will not be renewing my subscription, and urging others not to, unless Wired manages to change my opinion before it expires.
-Kevin Dean
Sweet, I know how to use screen now...
I've been a GNU/Linux user for years now and I am a self-labeled "command line junkie". I prefer to do most of my administrative stuff via command line rather than GUI though most of my "frivolous stuff" is done with the GUI.
Anyway, yesterday I was posting on Volconvo about video games and specifically mentioned music. Video game music, in my mind, immediately conjures up the score from Final Fantasy VI and subsequent Final Fantasy games.
So, I did what anyone would do: grabbed a torrent.
I'm sitting at work downloading a few (dozen) tracks of his music with KTorrent thinking "okay, cool". It was almost immediately that the download speed dropped pushing my finish time into the range of three hours - time I didn't have!
Musing to myself I thought "Self, it would be GREAT if you could SSH into Perle (My home NAS and Fileserver) and start the torrent there - it would be done before you go to bed." Yeah, assuming the remote session didn't time out or something. :)
Enter screen.
Screen is that excellent utility that I've heard so many people talk about and never needed in all of my years of CLIing. Until today, it seemed.
With a wave of my Google (okay, that didn't sound right) I found a site that is so very basic it makes screen seem "easy". Unfortunately, it wasn't the writer's skills that made it easy, the utility is actually very simple. But this isn't designed to make a hard task easy, it's designed to make a user aware of an easy task.
Behold, A Visual Introduction To GNU Screen.
Anyway, yesterday I was posting on Volconvo about video games and specifically mentioned music. Video game music, in my mind, immediately conjures up the score from Final Fantasy VI and subsequent Final Fantasy games.
So, I did what anyone would do: grabbed a torrent.
I'm sitting at work downloading a few (dozen) tracks of his music with KTorrent thinking "okay, cool". It was almost immediately that the download speed dropped pushing my finish time into the range of three hours - time I didn't have!
Musing to myself I thought "Self, it would be GREAT if you could SSH into Perle (My home NAS and Fileserver) and start the torrent there - it would be done before you go to bed." Yeah, assuming the remote session didn't time out or something. :)
Enter screen.
Screen is that excellent utility that I've heard so many people talk about and never needed in all of my years of CLIing. Until today, it seemed.
With a wave of my Google (okay, that didn't sound right) I found a site that is so very basic it makes screen seem "easy". Unfortunately, it wasn't the writer's skills that made it easy, the utility is actually very simple. But this isn't designed to make a hard task easy, it's designed to make a user aware of an easy task.
Behold, A Visual Introduction To GNU Screen.
Too Many Pictures
I packed up the images in /home/kevin a few days ago to load onto this site. There's a LOT of them. Somehow I've got images from the old days when I played World of Warcraft on Windows (Egads!).
A lot of the other stuff is copied from places like Deviant Art and the like, so I'm not sure if the bandwidth, time and space is worth uploading them here.
I'm going to "work around" the images I'm unsure of in the meantime.
A lot of the other stuff is copied from places like Deviant Art and the like, so I'm not sure if the bandwidth, time and space is worth uploading them here.
I'm going to "work around" the images I'm unsure of in the meantime.
Work has begun...
After several weeks of this site being nothing more than a crappy photo gallery, I've actually begun work on it!
Posting on ForeverDean has slowed down quite a bit, mainly because I realized that each post is one more thing I need to transfer to here, and you all know how I loathe work. :)
Posting on ForeverDean has slowed down quite a bit, mainly because I realized that each post is one more thing I need to transfer to here, and you all know how I loathe work. :)
What Do Version Numbers Mean?
The developers of the RadeonHD driver released version 1.0.0 today, the first official release of the “next-generation” Free Software driver for AMD’s video chip sets. I’m genuinely happy that this driver is released, and congrats to the developers.
However, the release brought up an issue that I’ve been wondering about for a while and just now had the impetus to write about.
gNewSense is a distro that focuses on Freedom first. It’s a distro I’ve “got my hand in” so to speak. Our definition of Freedom extends much further than a software license into practical application as well as artwork and documentation. For this reason, gNewSense does not include the older Radeon driver, which is licensed under the MIT/X license which is a Free Software license. The problem, however, is that because there is microcode in the driver, code that’s isn’t human readable, the source isn’t truly out and users aren’t truly free to edit it.
This is a view also held by at least SOME of the RadeonHD developers. When I asked about this issue, some of them mentioned that there is discussion about releasing a microcode-free version that does 2D - but the microcode is needed for 3D. By this definition, it’s not possible to truly have a Free Software driver to utilize all, or mostly all, of the features of AMD chipsets. It will be possible, however, to have a functional 2D driver powered by Free Software, but is that enough?
Now comes to the issue: When is software truly “ready”?
The new RadeonHD driver does NOT yet support 3D acceleration but it’s at 1.0.0. While I understand that the GPU can be used for a TON of things, most people think of things like AMD and nVidia’s video cards as “3D video cards”. To me, there’s something slightly off about a 1.0 release that doesn’t support the most basic (in terms of user perception - I understand that dealing with 3D code wise is quite complex) function of the card - 3D. While the RadeonHD driver is “better” than the vesa driver because it utilizes the card more, it’s no more functional than vesa.
This is not a rag on the Radeon developers by any means but designed more to be a thought exercise about what we expect out of an “official” release of software.
However, the release brought up an issue that I’ve been wondering about for a while and just now had the impetus to write about.
gNewSense is a distro that focuses on Freedom first. It’s a distro I’ve “got my hand in” so to speak. Our definition of Freedom extends much further than a software license into practical application as well as artwork and documentation. For this reason, gNewSense does not include the older Radeon driver, which is licensed under the MIT/X license which is a Free Software license. The problem, however, is that because there is microcode in the driver, code that’s isn’t human readable, the source isn’t truly out and users aren’t truly free to edit it.
This is a view also held by at least SOME of the RadeonHD developers. When I asked about this issue, some of them mentioned that there is discussion about releasing a microcode-free version that does 2D - but the microcode is needed for 3D. By this definition, it’s not possible to truly have a Free Software driver to utilize all, or mostly all, of the features of AMD chipsets. It will be possible, however, to have a functional 2D driver powered by Free Software, but is that enough?
Now comes to the issue: When is software truly “ready”?
The new RadeonHD driver does NOT yet support 3D acceleration but it’s at 1.0.0. While I understand that the GPU can be used for a TON of things, most people think of things like AMD and nVidia’s video cards as “3D video cards”. To me, there’s something slightly off about a 1.0 release that doesn’t support the most basic (in terms of user perception - I understand that dealing with 3D code wise is quite complex) function of the card - 3D. While the RadeonHD driver is “better” than the vesa driver because it utilizes the card more, it’s no more functional than vesa.
This is not a rag on the Radeon developers by any means but designed more to be a thought exercise about what we expect out of an “official” release of software.
Re: Why Ubuntu Tops Debian
Matt Hartley wrote an article about why he believes Ubuntu beats Debian. My responce is below.
Firstly, let me apologize if I am addressing the wrong Matt Hartley.
There is no easy way to contact the author on Juniper Media's sites so I had to resort to Google.
Secondly, I'd like to give my response as a long time GNU/Linux user, developer and Free Software advocate.
You begin you article with a phrase, and a basic assumption, here:
"Like Fedora or OpenSuSe, it was developed with all users in mind. Unfortunately, what many of the geekier users to this day fail to wrap their minds around is that this "Windows thinking" they complain about is more or less about ease of use, versus "choice.""
This is incorrect. You make the assumption that the goal of all GNU/Linux distros is to be "the most popular" and this can't be
further from the truth. From Fedora's front page (http://fedoraproject.org) you can find: "Fedora is a Linux-based operating system that showcases the latest in free and open source software. Fedora is always free for anyone to use, modify, and distribute."
This does not imply it's built "for anyone" or "for everyone" - it's built to showcase Free Software; it is incidentally AVAILABLE to
everyone.
The OpenSUSE project says this "Promoting the use of Linux everywhere, openSUSE.org provides free, easy access to the world's most usable Linux distribution, OpenSUSE. The OpenSUSE project gives Linux developers and enthusiasts everything they need to get started with Linux." (http://en.opensuse.org/Project_Overview)
I will say, however, that (politics aside) SUSE Linux (the non-free version of GNU/Linux packaged and sold by Novell - please note the distinction between that and OpenSUSE) actually manages to hit it's target audience ("average" corporate users) pretty well.
We now come to the Debian project: "The Debian Project is an association of individuals who have made common cause to create a free operating system." (http://www.us.debian.org/intro/about)
What can't be seen in this plain text message is that the word "free" links to a page (http://www.us.debian.org/intro/free) explaining about Freedom, not price.
As a side note I'd like to mention a non-Linux based operating system here: OpenBSD. As you may or may not know, OpenBSD releases every version coupled with a song used to address issues in the Free Software community, and often with OpenBSD specifically. The 4.2 release song debuted this week and features a verse:
"Slow and steady wins they say
but this is not a race
It's not about who takes a prize
for first or second place
Imaginary rings of brass
Were traded for real goals
The vision and the mission lost
For those with corporate souls"
That line there has actually made me rethink the use of GNU/Linux in favor of OpenBSD. It seems so many people are focused on GNU/Linux adoption that they've forgotten why GNU/Linux was something people should adopt in the first place.
"The idea that the average new user really ought to consider becoming more educated with Linux in order to merely use it is just plain silly."
We (in America) require that all drivers be licensed - they must demonstrate an understanding of traffic laws and safe operation of the vehicle. This isn't to make their cars "more difficult" to use, these are in place because failure to know and follow these things puts others at risk. I'm not in favor of an "internet license" but I sincerely believe that a basic understanding of computers, how they function and how they interact with OTHER COMPUTERS is crucial to the ability to use them. Failure to understand and attempt to prevent
botnets and spam bots is NOT an excuse for allowing your computer to be used by them. Drivers have accidents and even the best sysadmin will see a compromised system in his or her lifetime but when you are horribly lax from a disinterest in learning, you are just as responsible fro the damages you cause others. Education is MY attempt to mitigate that damage.
"I hope that most people remain clueless as it does help make sure that our favorite companies giving away their distributions can still successfully provide tech support as a business for their product. Even for generally basic tasks."
I find it somewhat ironic that Linux and GNU were created (and purposely opened) to prevent such a thing. Microsoft, Apple, Adobe and others stake their fortunes on keeping users restricted. GNU/Linux's sole strength is that it empowers them.
If users had the understanding of "basic tasks" the software economy wouldn't collapse. I'd argue that it may actually make it stronger. You have to know that in my belief of this I was raised by my grandmother who is a technophobe. When cellular phones came out they were "useless" and then "too expensive to be worth it" and then "too confusing" and now it's "impossible to live without". There are a ton of things today that we take for granted, like managing a few gigs worth of music (iPod-like devices), having online video conversations (Both real time via Ekiga and in cut-time with YouTube responses) and filling out a form to have a complete, attractive website generated with no understanding of code (CMS). These things didn't pop up because they're simple, they popped up because people who understood the basics took it a step further. EVERYONE has a point when they say "I don't know" and need to hire someone to meet a need. If we raise the bar a little bit it just means that the support people will be cranking out new innovative products to meet needs.
"If you place most people into the "command line" world while expecting success, you will instead hear the pitter-patter of their feet as they run back to their previous OS."
They'd also be a bit freaked out if you placed them in the operating room during surgery... Which is exactly why we keep them out of the operating room. We don't argue that operating rooms are "failures" because they're messy. The same applies for operating systems. the average user has no real reason to USE a command line and can operate a system without access to it. But for the digital "surgeons" who use the command line to keep servers up, to develop the next great application or to backup, sort and compress THEIR music collection faster than the GUI allows seeing the command line is a GREAT thing, not a failure. Ubuntu allows users to have a CLI-less system - Debian, being not designed for the "average user" includes is and expects you to use it. The only thing I see out of place with that whole situation is people who load Debian expecting an all GUI system. As out of place, I think, as those who grab Windows Vista expecting to do some hardcore NT kernel hacking - a hard thing to do with no source access.
"Who is primarily being driven to Ubuntu over Debian? It appears to be a mix between those who need consistency with their desktop; meaning not being asked which desktop they prefer to use, etc, and those who simply wish to have the bleeding edge thrown at them with their Linux installations."
That may be the group going to Ubuntu, I won't refute that. However, Ubuntu doesn't offer a choke hold on that market. Ubuntu rebases on Debian every 6 months and then goes into "freeze" until a new release hits. This means that users of Debian Sid and users of a "just released today" Ubuntu version aren't too far off and users of that same system in five-and-a-half months will actually have a more bleeding-edge system with Debian than with Ubuntu. The users who install the betas and release candidates would then fall out of the "average" realm into the "tester" realm, which I consider to be a critical part of development.
As to the consistency argument I'll agree and disagree. A default install of Debian is a Gnome install, just as Fedora and Ubuntu are. When you start adding non-default applications (Amarok, k3b) your "consistency" begins decreasing. This is a problem with the divide between Gnome and KDE, not with any strength or weakness in Ubuntu or Debian. It should be noted, however, that making the choice between Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu is not something "average" users have enough information to know without at least SOME basic understanding of the differences. A "Desktop Installation" of Debian, however, is Gnome. You have to do some "extra" work to install KDE or XFCE later.
"Until Ubuntu came along, you had to hold up a stick to see Debian development move."
Actually, I'll agree here both as a Debian server admin and as a Debian desktop user. I recall trying the "new" Warty releases of Ubuntu thinking "This is Debian's stuff just... snazzier". It wasn't newer, it was just flashier. Debian saw a decline in user base and took some notes from Ubuntu without compromising it's original objective - a Free Software operating system.
You seem to hold that up as a reason Ubuntu "beats" Debian right after a blurb about how Ubuntu depends on Debian. I feel this best explains why Debian and Ubuntu COMPLIMENT each other rather than explaining why one wins in COMPETITION with another.
"Yes, that was mean -- get over it,"
Interestingly, because I believe that comment was made in all seriousness AND is factually valid, it's the LEAST "mean" comment in the entire article. :)
"Let me simply go on record as saying that Ubuntu, while a fantastic distro, has little interest in seeing Debian become anything more than yet another cog in the greater Ubuntu machine."
Interesting that half-way through both of our views switch: as a Debian user I feel the need to defend Ubuntu here. :)
Mark Shuttleworth IS Ubuntu in most senses that matter. He manages large things like the project management policy but also weighs in (and sometimes rules) on small things like the default desktop wallpaper (Ubuntu Edgy Knot 3 had the sexiest startup and shutdown sounds in ANY OS, ever, but was pulled by Mark for being too flashy. Incidentally, you can download those sounds from my site:
http://www.foreverdean.info/kevin/downloads/Sounds.tar.gz). Mark Shuttleworth was also a Debian developer and was committed to the ideals of the Debian project - namely Free Software. This is evident in the Ubuntu Philosophy (http://www.ubuntu.com/community/ubuntustory/philosophy) and by official and non-official initives by Mark
(http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/130 and http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/131).
Mark started Ubuntu mainly because he felt that as good as Debian was, by not focusing on the desktop SPECIFICALLY Debian wouldn't ever been the premier desktop operating system. He contemplated running (as all Developers can do) for Debian Project Leader but ultimately decided that since being the most popular desktop wasn't Debian's goal, he's create a fork that did aspire to that. Any reluctance on EITHER side seems best explained by a conflict in project aims (untested real-time audio patches aren't very important in a stable server install) rather than a desire to have Debian in it's role as a "cog". Mark more than anyone recognizes that as soon as Ubuntu has cogs and not a community it is already a failure.
"Ask any Mac user and they will tell you a thousand reasons why they enjoy their Mac: it just works, the software, etc."
I would dump GNU/Linux in a heartbeat if Mac OS X were liberated today. Not because of the consistent interface, easy to use tools or "it just works" but because it's a damn powerful mash-up of hacker-friendly tools and user-friendly applications. Then again, if Apple released the Cocoa interface as Free Software GNU/Linux would gain that as well and also be build on totally Free Software. Hrm... Perhaps Apple, not Microsoft, holds the "missing key" in making GNU/Linux "adoptable".
"In the end, it comes down to whom the distribution is trying to target. Debian is a fantastic purist distro. And Ubuntu is one of a few great options for complete newbies."
I couldn't agree more.
"However, it's when these two worlds cross within the Linux universe that things get a bit sticky."
I am under the assumption that you make a living as a journalist with geeky passions - that said I understand the point of these tantalizing articles is to grab a reader and keep them reading. However, I appeal right now to the geek in you. When those two goals are mistaken as the same goal it creates tension and misunderstanding. As long as journalists, bloggers and end-users see Debian's "failure" riding on the numbers of users then both Ubuntu and Debian (and in fact, all of GNU/Linux) have been attacked. I mean, sure, Ubuntu has more users than Debian, but Windows has more users than all GNU/Linux and BSD and Mac OS X users combined. Obviously, Windows isn't a measure of ideological, ethical or technical merit but by placing the burden of popularity on a specific distro you imply that having more users makes it a success - a comparison every distro will always fail at.
It would be a beautiful day when users of GNU/Linux stop competing with each other to gain users and start competing with Windows and Mac OS X on the values that are important to them. Ubuntu is more usable than Windows (I'd also argue than Mac) and Debian is more Free than Windows (and Mac). Almost every Debian user and developer would rather see someone use Ubuntu over Windows - in this case both projects gain by working together rather than bashing one another.
We all fail when we get caught up chasing imaginary goals rather than attaining the ones we can.
Something OpenBSD recognizes quite a bit.
-Kevin Dean
Firstly, let me apologize if I am addressing the wrong Matt Hartley.
There is no easy way to contact the author on Juniper Media's sites so I had to resort to Google.
Secondly, I'd like to give my response as a long time GNU/Linux user, developer and Free Software advocate.
You begin you article with a phrase, and a basic assumption, here:
"Like Fedora or OpenSuSe, it was developed with all users in mind. Unfortunately, what many of the geekier users to this day fail to wrap their minds around is that this "Windows thinking" they complain about is more or less about ease of use, versus "choice.""
This is incorrect. You make the assumption that the goal of all GNU/Linux distros is to be "the most popular" and this can't be
further from the truth. From Fedora's front page (http://fedoraproject.org) you can find: "Fedora is a Linux-based operating system that showcases the latest in free and open source software. Fedora is always free for anyone to use, modify, and distribute."
This does not imply it's built "for anyone" or "for everyone" - it's built to showcase Free Software; it is incidentally AVAILABLE to
everyone.
The OpenSUSE project says this "Promoting the use of Linux everywhere, openSUSE.org provides free, easy access to the world's most usable Linux distribution, OpenSUSE. The OpenSUSE project gives Linux developers and enthusiasts everything they need to get started with Linux." (http://en.opensuse.org/Project_Overview)
I will say, however, that (politics aside) SUSE Linux (the non-free version of GNU/Linux packaged and sold by Novell - please note the distinction between that and OpenSUSE) actually manages to hit it's target audience ("average" corporate users) pretty well.
We now come to the Debian project: "The Debian Project is an association of individuals who have made common cause to create a free operating system." (http://www.us.debian.org/intro/about)
What can't be seen in this plain text message is that the word "free" links to a page (http://www.us.debian.org/intro/free) explaining about Freedom, not price.
As a side note I'd like to mention a non-Linux based operating system here: OpenBSD. As you may or may not know, OpenBSD releases every version coupled with a song used to address issues in the Free Software community, and often with OpenBSD specifically. The 4.2 release song debuted this week and features a verse:
"Slow and steady wins they say
but this is not a race
It's not about who takes a prize
for first or second place
Imaginary rings of brass
Were traded for real goals
The vision and the mission lost
For those with corporate souls"
That line there has actually made me rethink the use of GNU/Linux in favor of OpenBSD. It seems so many people are focused on GNU/Linux adoption that they've forgotten why GNU/Linux was something people should adopt in the first place.
"The idea that the average new user really ought to consider becoming more educated with Linux in order to merely use it is just plain silly."
We (in America) require that all drivers be licensed - they must demonstrate an understanding of traffic laws and safe operation of the vehicle. This isn't to make their cars "more difficult" to use, these are in place because failure to know and follow these things puts others at risk. I'm not in favor of an "internet license" but I sincerely believe that a basic understanding of computers, how they function and how they interact with OTHER COMPUTERS is crucial to the ability to use them. Failure to understand and attempt to prevent
botnets and spam bots is NOT an excuse for allowing your computer to be used by them. Drivers have accidents and even the best sysadmin will see a compromised system in his or her lifetime but when you are horribly lax from a disinterest in learning, you are just as responsible fro the damages you cause others. Education is MY attempt to mitigate that damage.
"I hope that most people remain clueless as it does help make sure that our favorite companies giving away their distributions can still successfully provide tech support as a business for their product. Even for generally basic tasks."
I find it somewhat ironic that Linux and GNU were created (and purposely opened) to prevent such a thing. Microsoft, Apple, Adobe and others stake their fortunes on keeping users restricted. GNU/Linux's sole strength is that it empowers them.
If users had the understanding of "basic tasks" the software economy wouldn't collapse. I'd argue that it may actually make it stronger. You have to know that in my belief of this I was raised by my grandmother who is a technophobe. When cellular phones came out they were "useless" and then "too expensive to be worth it" and then "too confusing" and now it's "impossible to live without". There are a ton of things today that we take for granted, like managing a few gigs worth of music (iPod-like devices), having online video conversations (Both real time via Ekiga and in cut-time with YouTube responses) and filling out a form to have a complete, attractive website generated with no understanding of code (CMS). These things didn't pop up because they're simple, they popped up because people who understood the basics took it a step further. EVERYONE has a point when they say "I don't know" and need to hire someone to meet a need. If we raise the bar a little bit it just means that the support people will be cranking out new innovative products to meet needs.
"If you place most people into the "command line" world while expecting success, you will instead hear the pitter-patter of their feet as they run back to their previous OS."
They'd also be a bit freaked out if you placed them in the operating room during surgery... Which is exactly why we keep them out of the operating room. We don't argue that operating rooms are "failures" because they're messy. The same applies for operating systems. the average user has no real reason to USE a command line and can operate a system without access to it. But for the digital "surgeons" who use the command line to keep servers up, to develop the next great application or to backup, sort and compress THEIR music collection faster than the GUI allows seeing the command line is a GREAT thing, not a failure. Ubuntu allows users to have a CLI-less system - Debian, being not designed for the "average user" includes is and expects you to use it. The only thing I see out of place with that whole situation is people who load Debian expecting an all GUI system. As out of place, I think, as those who grab Windows Vista expecting to do some hardcore NT kernel hacking - a hard thing to do with no source access.
"Who is primarily being driven to Ubuntu over Debian? It appears to be a mix between those who need consistency with their desktop; meaning not being asked which desktop they prefer to use, etc, and those who simply wish to have the bleeding edge thrown at them with their Linux installations."
That may be the group going to Ubuntu, I won't refute that. However, Ubuntu doesn't offer a choke hold on that market. Ubuntu rebases on Debian every 6 months and then goes into "freeze" until a new release hits. This means that users of Debian Sid and users of a "just released today" Ubuntu version aren't too far off and users of that same system in five-and-a-half months will actually have a more bleeding-edge system with Debian than with Ubuntu. The users who install the betas and release candidates would then fall out of the "average" realm into the "tester" realm, which I consider to be a critical part of development.
As to the consistency argument I'll agree and disagree. A default install of Debian is a Gnome install, just as Fedora and Ubuntu are. When you start adding non-default applications (Amarok, k3b) your "consistency" begins decreasing. This is a problem with the divide between Gnome and KDE, not with any strength or weakness in Ubuntu or Debian. It should be noted, however, that making the choice between Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu is not something "average" users have enough information to know without at least SOME basic understanding of the differences. A "Desktop Installation" of Debian, however, is Gnome. You have to do some "extra" work to install KDE or XFCE later.
"Until Ubuntu came along, you had to hold up a stick to see Debian development move."
Actually, I'll agree here both as a Debian server admin and as a Debian desktop user. I recall trying the "new" Warty releases of Ubuntu thinking "This is Debian's stuff just... snazzier". It wasn't newer, it was just flashier. Debian saw a decline in user base and took some notes from Ubuntu without compromising it's original objective - a Free Software operating system.
You seem to hold that up as a reason Ubuntu "beats" Debian right after a blurb about how Ubuntu depends on Debian. I feel this best explains why Debian and Ubuntu COMPLIMENT each other rather than explaining why one wins in COMPETITION with another.
"Yes, that was mean -- get over it,"
Interestingly, because I believe that comment was made in all seriousness AND is factually valid, it's the LEAST "mean" comment in the entire article. :)
"Let me simply go on record as saying that Ubuntu, while a fantastic distro, has little interest in seeing Debian become anything more than yet another cog in the greater Ubuntu machine."
Interesting that half-way through both of our views switch: as a Debian user I feel the need to defend Ubuntu here. :)
Mark Shuttleworth IS Ubuntu in most senses that matter. He manages large things like the project management policy but also weighs in (and sometimes rules) on small things like the default desktop wallpaper (Ubuntu Edgy Knot 3 had the sexiest startup and shutdown sounds in ANY OS, ever, but was pulled by Mark for being too flashy. Incidentally, you can download those sounds from my site:
http://www.foreverdean.info/kevin/downloads/Sounds.tar.gz). Mark Shuttleworth was also a Debian developer and was committed to the ideals of the Debian project - namely Free Software. This is evident in the Ubuntu Philosophy (http://www.ubuntu.com/community/ubuntustory/philosophy) and by official and non-official initives by Mark
(http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/130 and http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/131).
Mark started Ubuntu mainly because he felt that as good as Debian was, by not focusing on the desktop SPECIFICALLY Debian wouldn't ever been the premier desktop operating system. He contemplated running (as all Developers can do) for Debian Project Leader but ultimately decided that since being the most popular desktop wasn't Debian's goal, he's create a fork that did aspire to that. Any reluctance on EITHER side seems best explained by a conflict in project aims (untested real-time audio patches aren't very important in a stable server install) rather than a desire to have Debian in it's role as a "cog". Mark more than anyone recognizes that as soon as Ubuntu has cogs and not a community it is already a failure.
"Ask any Mac user and they will tell you a thousand reasons why they enjoy their Mac: it just works, the software, etc."
I would dump GNU/Linux in a heartbeat if Mac OS X were liberated today. Not because of the consistent interface, easy to use tools or "it just works" but because it's a damn powerful mash-up of hacker-friendly tools and user-friendly applications. Then again, if Apple released the Cocoa interface as Free Software GNU/Linux would gain that as well and also be build on totally Free Software. Hrm... Perhaps Apple, not Microsoft, holds the "missing key" in making GNU/Linux "adoptable".
"In the end, it comes down to whom the distribution is trying to target. Debian is a fantastic purist distro. And Ubuntu is one of a few great options for complete newbies."
I couldn't agree more.
"However, it's when these two worlds cross within the Linux universe that things get a bit sticky."
I am under the assumption that you make a living as a journalist with geeky passions - that said I understand the point of these tantalizing articles is to grab a reader and keep them reading. However, I appeal right now to the geek in you. When those two goals are mistaken as the same goal it creates tension and misunderstanding. As long as journalists, bloggers and end-users see Debian's "failure" riding on the numbers of users then both Ubuntu and Debian (and in fact, all of GNU/Linux) have been attacked. I mean, sure, Ubuntu has more users than Debian, but Windows has more users than all GNU/Linux and BSD and Mac OS X users combined. Obviously, Windows isn't a measure of ideological, ethical or technical merit but by placing the burden of popularity on a specific distro you imply that having more users makes it a success - a comparison every distro will always fail at.
It would be a beautiful day when users of GNU/Linux stop competing with each other to gain users and start competing with Windows and Mac OS X on the values that are important to them. Ubuntu is more usable than Windows (I'd also argue than Mac) and Debian is more Free than Windows (and Mac). Almost every Debian user and developer would rather see someone use Ubuntu over Windows - in this case both projects gain by working together rather than bashing one another.
We all fail when we get caught up chasing imaginary goals rather than attaining the ones we can.
Something OpenBSD recognizes quite a bit.
-Kevin Dean
Frederick County Library: The Official Responce
Elizabeth Cromwell, Public Relations Manager for the Frederick County Library responded to my e-mail and I'm finally getting around to posting it.
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for contacting Frederick County Public Libraries regarding downloadable content. Public libraries try to make content as freely available as possible. We are not always satisfied with the restrictions vendors may place upon end users, and vendors are well aware of our concerns.
Many librarians are involved in this issue through advocacy groups such as the American Library Association, Maryland Library Association and a variety of other organizations. These organizations exist to take on broad issues of national or international impact. The concern you have raised fits perfectly within the parameters of these advocacy groups.
Frederick County Public Libraries is a local government agency, not an advocacy group. Our mission is to provide access to as much information and cultural/learning experiences as our limited budget can offer. Our team of people that work on our website and online content represent about 2 percent of our staff. The vast majority of our staff assists with the running of our facilities to serve the people of Frederick County.
I applaud your efforts to make sweeping changes and take on Microsoft. You'll find a lot of library staffers in this country and abroad in your corner. Feel free to share your expertise with the advocacy groups I have mentioned, and keep us posted on your efforts.
As for us, we will continue to share our concerns with vendors. With a growing demand from our users for more, not less, of these products, I don't anticipate doing away with them at this time.
Thanks again for raising the issue. We are always happy to receive valuable input from our consumers.
Regards,
Elizabeth Cromwell
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for contacting Frederick County Public Libraries regarding downloadable content. Public libraries try to make content as freely available as possible. We are not always satisfied with the restrictions vendors may place upon end users, and vendors are well aware of our concerns.
Many librarians are involved in this issue through advocacy groups such as the American Library Association, Maryland Library Association and a variety of other organizations. These organizations exist to take on broad issues of national or international impact. The concern you have raised fits perfectly within the parameters of these advocacy groups.
Frederick County Public Libraries is a local government agency, not an advocacy group. Our mission is to provide access to as much information and cultural/learning experiences as our limited budget can offer. Our team of people that work on our website and online content represent about 2 percent of our staff. The vast majority of our staff assists with the running of our facilities to serve the people of Frederick County.
I applaud your efforts to make sweeping changes and take on Microsoft. You'll find a lot of library staffers in this country and abroad in your corner. Feel free to share your expertise with the advocacy groups I have mentioned, and keep us posted on your efforts.
As for us, we will continue to share our concerns with vendors. With a growing demand from our users for more, not less, of these products, I don't anticipate doing away with them at this time.
Thanks again for raising the issue. We are always happy to receive valuable input from our consumers.
Regards,
Elizabeth Cromwell
The Greatest Of Illusions: The Linux Community
I was reading today, like i usually do, and began to get irritated by a phrase that I see repeated over and over: The Linux Community.
Now, this is not to say that there aren't people devoted to GNU/Linux, this is to say that there is not a single community. Communities have common goals, values and ideals. Truthfully, when it comes down to it, GNU/Linux has one of the weakest "communities"; we don't even agree about the purpose of having GNU/Linux!
I use GNU/Linux because it is Free Software. I specifically use Debian because I like the way that it is implimented and because the Debian Project's Free Software Guidelines give me marginal confidence in what I'm installing.
There are people who install SimplyMepis to add non-free software to their system, considering Debian's "lack" of non-free packages to be a problem. "Opinions are like assholes", it's been said, "everyone has one" and they almost always stink.
I don't have a problem with opposing view points, I do, however have a problem with publications (that focus on monetizing GNU/Linux) trying to hone in on the "Linux Community". You're "insight" is misleading in many cases. "The Linux Community" does not want restrictive applications ported to GNU/Linux. "The Linux Community" does not oppose Microsoft's Evil Marketing. "The Linux Comunity" is not vibrant, fragile, touchy, quasi-religious.
We are individuals. We all have our own reasons for using GNU/Linux, and even when some of those reasons overlap, the motivations behind them often differ.
Now, this is not to say that there aren't people devoted to GNU/Linux, this is to say that there is not a single community. Communities have common goals, values and ideals. Truthfully, when it comes down to it, GNU/Linux has one of the weakest "communities"; we don't even agree about the purpose of having GNU/Linux!
I use GNU/Linux because it is Free Software. I specifically use Debian because I like the way that it is implimented and because the Debian Project's Free Software Guidelines give me marginal confidence in what I'm installing.
There are people who install SimplyMepis to add non-free software to their system, considering Debian's "lack" of non-free packages to be a problem. "Opinions are like assholes", it's been said, "everyone has one" and they almost always stink.
I don't have a problem with opposing view points, I do, however have a problem with publications (that focus on monetizing GNU/Linux) trying to hone in on the "Linux Community". You're "insight" is misleading in many cases. "The Linux Community" does not want restrictive applications ported to GNU/Linux. "The Linux Community" does not oppose Microsoft's Evil Marketing. "The Linux Comunity" is not vibrant, fragile, touchy, quasi-religious.
We are individuals. We all have our own reasons for using GNU/Linux, and even when some of those reasons overlap, the motivations behind them often differ.
Re: Fragmentation Threatens The Momentum Of Mobile Linux
PC World reported today that Fragmentation Threatens Mobile Linux Momentum.
At first glance, I was reading over this article thinking that it may be a prudent argument, of course application developers want their applications to run on many different devices.
It was not until I got to this point that I realized why this argument is completely irrelevant, or at least misleading:
This problem hurts users interested in applications that are incompatible with their handsets. Also affected are software developers who have to make multiple versions of the same application for different handsets.
Having been in the Free Software world for so long, I almost forgot - seriously - that in some parts of the industry, people who WRITE the applications still insist that THEY should be responsible for every aspect of them. Rather than pass the source off to the framework developers, they bear the burden of patching, debugging, testing and deploying the following things.
And then I realized that this article didn't really discuss application vendors, it discussed restrictive application vendors.
Vodaphone "will soon require that all of their handsets run only two or three specific operating systems as a way to ensure that applications will work across all phones".
"Without consolidation, they see costs related to supporting mobile Linux soaring"
Mobile vendors, I have a simple solution - liberate your software! License your applications under a Free Software license and extend you applications to the users of those devices. Nokia can show you a good way to start.
By leveraging the power of the community, you can reduce deployment costs, ensure higher compatibility and, best of all, stop supporting an industry that believes it can exist only by subjugating it's customers.
Viva Libre!
At first glance, I was reading over this article thinking that it may be a prudent argument, of course application developers want their applications to run on many different devices.
It was not until I got to this point that I realized why this argument is completely irrelevant, or at least misleading:
This problem hurts users interested in applications that are incompatible with their handsets. Also affected are software developers who have to make multiple versions of the same application for different handsets.
Having been in the Free Software world for so long, I almost forgot - seriously - that in some parts of the industry, people who WRITE the applications still insist that THEY should be responsible for every aspect of them. Rather than pass the source off to the framework developers, they bear the burden of patching, debugging, testing and deploying the following things.
And then I realized that this article didn't really discuss application vendors, it discussed restrictive application vendors.
Vodaphone "will soon require that all of their handsets run only two or three specific operating systems as a way to ensure that applications will work across all phones".
"Without consolidation, they see costs related to supporting mobile Linux soaring"
Mobile vendors, I have a simple solution - liberate your software! License your applications under a Free Software license and extend you applications to the users of those devices. Nokia can show you a good way to start.
By leveraging the power of the community, you can reduce deployment costs, ensure higher compatibility and, best of all, stop supporting an industry that believes it can exist only by subjugating it's customers.
Viva Libre!
Frederick County Library, The Responce
I got a friendly, even positive, response from the Frederick County Public Library. However, since the person who responded made it very clear that they are not able to make public statements on behalf of the library, I will not re-post the letter. I was directed to Elizabeth Cromwell, the press relations manager for the library, and hopefully she will be able to provide something that can be “on record.”
I will say, however, that I got the impression from my initial response that DRM is an issue with libraries. Furthermore, in keeping with the concepts of keeping information open and available, the FCPL does run Free Software.
Upon review, the submission form I used was a Perl script with a liberal, BSD like license. The server hosting their site is Apache. :)
Maybe the response could be more interesting than I originally expected. :)
I will say, however, that I got the impression from my initial response that DRM is an issue with libraries. Furthermore, in keeping with the concepts of keeping information open and available, the FCPL does run Free Software.
Upon review, the submission form I used was a Perl script with a liberal, BSD like license. The server hosting their site is Apache. :)
Maybe the response could be more interesting than I originally expected. :)
Frederick County Public Libraries - In Need of Free Software!
I was browsing my local library's online catalog today when, to my excitement, I saw that there are several downloadable offerings. :)
As I navigated towards them, I was horrified to discover that they require Windows Media Player. It goes on to say that due to licensing restrictions they don't work on an iPod... The ONLY way I can imagine that would be an issue is if those files were encumbered by restrictive Digital Rights Mutilation (DRM) that limits how users can enjoy their content.
Considering that the Frederick County Public Libraries receive government monies, I decided I'd submit to them a letter asking when they would offer online content to users of Free Software. Below is my actual letter.
When will the Frederick Public Library provide access to it's online material to users of Free Software operating systems such as GNU/Linux or the BSD operating systems? Information on the Free Software philosophy can be found here (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html)
The downloadable content listed in the FCPL catalog requires Windows Media Player, which many people can not legally use because we do not agree to the restrictive license requirements of that application or the Windows operating systems required to install Windows Media Player. Certain formats, such as Theora (http://theora.org/theorafaq.html#10) and Vorbis (http://www.xiph.org/vorbis/) are usable by EVERYONE and are not restricted by unethical Digital Rights Mutilation (DRM). For more information on DRM and those who resist it please visit http://defectivebydesign.org/
Thank you,
Kevin Dean
As I navigated towards them, I was horrified to discover that they require Windows Media Player. It goes on to say that due to licensing restrictions they don't work on an iPod... The ONLY way I can imagine that would be an issue is if those files were encumbered by restrictive Digital Rights Mutilation (DRM) that limits how users can enjoy their content.
Considering that the Frederick County Public Libraries receive government monies, I decided I'd submit to them a letter asking when they would offer online content to users of Free Software. Below is my actual letter.
When will the Frederick Public Library provide access to it's online material to users of Free Software operating systems such as GNU/Linux or the BSD operating systems? Information on the Free Software philosophy can be found here (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html)
The downloadable content listed in the FCPL catalog requires Windows Media Player, which many people can not legally use because we do not agree to the restrictive license requirements of that application or the Windows operating systems required to install Windows Media Player. Certain formats, such as Theora (http://theora.org/theorafaq.html#10) and Vorbis (http://www.xiph.org/vorbis/) are usable by EVERYONE and are not restricted by unethical Digital Rights Mutilation (DRM). For more information on DRM and those who resist it please visit http://defectivebydesign.org/
Thank you,
Kevin Dean
Exposure To Freedom Leads To Freedom
Danijel Orsolic (Libervisco of The Libervis Network) and I were having a chat yesterday, inspired by his article "Merging Open Source and Free Software".
Generally, he feels that it's time to return to using the Free Software moniker instead of Open Source, and create an organization called "The Free Software Business Initiative" to (like Bruce Perens's original goal) enlighten business to why freedom is important. While I agree that it is important for show businesses why freedom is important, I disagree with his hope of "merging" Open Source into Free Software.
Why?
Because people who use the term "Open Source" have rejected the freedom aspects of the software. They rejected the ethical issues attached with restricting users with non-free software. To them, it's not a matter of freedom. Just like the people who use Windows, blissfully unaware that they could be doing better. "Open Source" advocates are no more for the cause of Free Software than Microsoft itself. They, like Microsoft, sometimes release Free Software. They, like Microsoft, seem to believe that Free Software and business can't work together. They, like Microsoft, do NOTHING to further freedom for the sake of freedom.
I already hear Libervisco saying "But Open Source OSes bring users to freedom." It's the "adoption" arguement which I've always found to be faulty. There are those who believe that the more people adopting GNU/Linux, the more potential people there are who will come to value freedom. On the surface, this makes sense, it's playing the odds, essentially. However, this view fails to take in to account "the other side". For every person now using GNU/Linux that MIGHT come to Freedom, you've got another person vehemently arguing how "Linux shouldn't be political". GNU/Linux adoption, at the very least, merely adds numbers to both sides of a "war" that's existed since 1991.
Admittedly, I'm a rather black-and-white thinker. I couldn't really grasp WHY encouraging Free Software use on Vista helped... How you could care about freedom and STILL use a non-free OS baffled me. But the more I think on it, that's the BEST way to advocate Free Software. When you make it a "Linux" thing, people sometimes become resistant. Having worked in the "enterprise sector" I found that change is slow. Often, change is scourned, simply because it is change. But even in people's homes, change is frowned upon, except by a small core of people... The people who have already made a change for freedom.
For years I've been advocating people switch to GNU/Linux by explaining how they're being restricted and the benefits of Freedom. Some have switched, some haven't. Those that HAVE switched all gained an appreciation for freedom. However, I'm now feeling as if I could be doing more to spread Freedom - by focusing on Windows users and Mac users. Spread freedom has ALWAYS been what I've advocated, not "adopt Linux".
There are signs that I'm not the only one. Joshua Gay, the campaign director of the Free Software Foundation discussed this in the FSF Bulletin while introducing Libre Planet. By quoting the Ithaca Free Software Association's "How to spread Free Software" he covered this idea - a way to more effectively spread the ideas of Freedom which are central to the "adopt GNU/Linux and they'll learn about Freedom" concepts. Exposure to Freedom will lead to Freedom.
This is a call to Free Software advocates. Stop advocating GNU/Linux for a moment. Take a deep breath, and think about what it is that you value about your freedom. Think of the things you're able to do with Free Software. Think of the peace of mind the added privacy and control gives you. Now think of ways to help give that message to someone around you without advocating they try GNU/Linux. Is that goal viable?
Why haven't you started?
Generally, he feels that it's time to return to using the Free Software moniker instead of Open Source, and create an organization called "The Free Software Business Initiative" to (like Bruce Perens's original goal) enlighten business to why freedom is important. While I agree that it is important for show businesses why freedom is important, I disagree with his hope of "merging" Open Source into Free Software.
Why?
Because people who use the term "Open Source" have rejected the freedom aspects of the software. They rejected the ethical issues attached with restricting users with non-free software. To them, it's not a matter of freedom. Just like the people who use Windows, blissfully unaware that they could be doing better. "Open Source" advocates are no more for the cause of Free Software than Microsoft itself. They, like Microsoft, sometimes release Free Software. They, like Microsoft, seem to believe that Free Software and business can't work together. They, like Microsoft, do NOTHING to further freedom for the sake of freedom.
I already hear Libervisco saying "But Open Source OSes bring users to freedom." It's the "adoption" arguement which I've always found to be faulty. There are those who believe that the more people adopting GNU/Linux, the more potential people there are who will come to value freedom. On the surface, this makes sense, it's playing the odds, essentially. However, this view fails to take in to account "the other side". For every person now using GNU/Linux that MIGHT come to Freedom, you've got another person vehemently arguing how "Linux shouldn't be political". GNU/Linux adoption, at the very least, merely adds numbers to both sides of a "war" that's existed since 1991.
Admittedly, I'm a rather black-and-white thinker. I couldn't really grasp WHY encouraging Free Software use on Vista helped... How you could care about freedom and STILL use a non-free OS baffled me. But the more I think on it, that's the BEST way to advocate Free Software. When you make it a "Linux" thing, people sometimes become resistant. Having worked in the "enterprise sector" I found that change is slow. Often, change is scourned, simply because it is change. But even in people's homes, change is frowned upon, except by a small core of people... The people who have already made a change for freedom.
For years I've been advocating people switch to GNU/Linux by explaining how they're being restricted and the benefits of Freedom. Some have switched, some haven't. Those that HAVE switched all gained an appreciation for freedom. However, I'm now feeling as if I could be doing more to spread Freedom - by focusing on Windows users and Mac users. Spread freedom has ALWAYS been what I've advocated, not "adopt Linux".
There are signs that I'm not the only one. Joshua Gay, the campaign director of the Free Software Foundation discussed this in the FSF Bulletin while introducing Libre Planet. By quoting the Ithaca Free Software Association's "How to spread Free Software" he covered this idea - a way to more effectively spread the ideas of Freedom which are central to the "adopt GNU/Linux and they'll learn about Freedom" concepts. Exposure to Freedom will lead to Freedom.
This is a call to Free Software advocates. Stop advocating GNU/Linux for a moment. Take a deep breath, and think about what it is that you value about your freedom. Think of the things you're able to do with Free Software. Think of the peace of mind the added privacy and control gives you. Now think of ways to help give that message to someone around you without advocating they try GNU/Linux. Is that goal viable?
Why haven't you started?
Libre Planet
Last night at around 11:30 pm, as I've got a Debian Lenny business card install going on my new system and a Debian Etch netinstall going on my wife's old Sempron 2800+ I sat down to watch some anime (yes, I do that, now and then). But as I'm opening the Netflix envelope I notice under it the FSF newsletter, which has just arrived.
I quickly thumbed through it and found Joshua Gay (The FSF Campaign Manager) had an article in there discussing an idea called Libre Planet, a campaign to organize Free Software activism. He and Mitch Weidemann (of the Ithaca Free Software Association) had some excellent points. Namely:
1. You don't need a big group to do free software advocacy on a local scale. Sometimes numbers help, but most of the time 1-3 people are plenty to staff a booth, give a presentation or correspond with local people and organizations.
2. You have to know your stuff, and everyone you're working with has to have a thorough background in what free software is, and what open source is (and isn't). Luckily all of this information is availible on the gnu.org site. But anyone I plan on taking with me to an event must have their facts straight.
3. Have a one-page flyer explaining who you are, what free software is and why it's important, and how people can contact your group to get more information. Additionally, invite everyone you talk with to join your group. Hand this flyer out with every disc you give out.
4. You're running a free software group, not a "Linux" group. Therefore, everyone with an interest in free software is welcome, including Vista users, and MacOS users. Not everyone can simply switch to GNU/Linux but most can use free software.
5. Most conferences are really looking for "Linux", "open source", and "free software" representitives because it provides some real variety to their boring "vendors" line-ups. Most local conferences I've attended have provided the booth and the presentation slots to the IFSA at no cost.
What really jumps out to me is #4. This is such a simple point that I'm blown away that I hear it so little. Advocates for Free Software should advocate Freedom everywhere, including on Vista, rather than attempting to guide people into the GNU/Linux "trap". While I love the OS, I've played with OpenSolaris and BSD and find them almost equally useful. I advocate people to use Firefox over IE, why can't I take this to the next step and organize a campaign around that?
In addition to this "How To", Josh is looking for suggestions on what Libre Planet should be. What resources could the FSF provide to help encourage and support Free Software activism? I've heard suggestions of a FSUG (Free Software Users Group) Radio. A central database of FSUG's to allow individuals to find groups in their area, and to allow groups to co-ordinate events?
Anyone with ideas is encouraged to e-mail campaigns at fsf dot org with suggestions. ;)
I quickly thumbed through it and found Joshua Gay (The FSF Campaign Manager) had an article in there discussing an idea called Libre Planet, a campaign to organize Free Software activism. He and Mitch Weidemann (of the Ithaca Free Software Association) had some excellent points. Namely:
1. You don't need a big group to do free software advocacy on a local scale. Sometimes numbers help, but most of the time 1-3 people are plenty to staff a booth, give a presentation or correspond with local people and organizations.
2. You have to know your stuff, and everyone you're working with has to have a thorough background in what free software is, and what open source is (and isn't). Luckily all of this information is availible on the gnu.org site. But anyone I plan on taking with me to an event must have their facts straight.
3. Have a one-page flyer explaining who you are, what free software is and why it's important, and how people can contact your group to get more information. Additionally, invite everyone you talk with to join your group. Hand this flyer out with every disc you give out.
4. You're running a free software group, not a "Linux" group. Therefore, everyone with an interest in free software is welcome, including Vista users, and MacOS users. Not everyone can simply switch to GNU/Linux but most can use free software.
5. Most conferences are really looking for "Linux", "open source", and "free software" representitives because it provides some real variety to their boring "vendors" line-ups. Most local conferences I've attended have provided the booth and the presentation slots to the IFSA at no cost.
What really jumps out to me is #4. This is such a simple point that I'm blown away that I hear it so little. Advocates for Free Software should advocate Freedom everywhere, including on Vista, rather than attempting to guide people into the GNU/Linux "trap". While I love the OS, I've played with OpenSolaris and BSD and find them almost equally useful. I advocate people to use Firefox over IE, why can't I take this to the next step and organize a campaign around that?
In addition to this "How To", Josh is looking for suggestions on what Libre Planet should be. What resources could the FSF provide to help encourage and support Free Software activism? I've heard suggestions of a FSUG (Free Software Users Group) Radio. A central database of FSUG's to allow individuals to find groups in their area, and to allow groups to co-ordinate events?
Anyone with ideas is encouraged to e-mail campaigns at fsf dot org with suggestions. ;)
Intel Build Nightmare - Part II
Last week I blogged about my failed attempts to build two Intel systems to take advantage of the libre 3D drivers that Intel released.
I closed last time with the new RAM on backorder from NewEgg, 2 dried motherboards on a shipment back to NewEgg and 16 GB of incompatible RAM also trekking across the country to NewEgg's RMA department.
Shortly after blogging about this the RAM came back in stock. And when I say shortly, I mean in a matter of minutes. That was great... Except that NewEgg didn't seem to have information about tracking.
Come Tuesday morning at about 10 am I got a confirmation letter that my package had been shipped... By 11 am I had the package in my hands. While I am not complaining about NewEgg's shipping, or even UPS, the total lack of information is inconsiderate. I buy packages from companies that don't provide shipping info, and I'm cool with that. But when you provide a service, I expect it to be half effecient. Four days without notification of a shipment is too long when packages can be shipped in half a day.
Anyway, I now have 8GB of RAM sitting on my desk. A long week drags on when I realize that I will need more thermal paste for the CPU coolers. Unmounting them a few times, then tucking the processors back into storage means the paste goes bad. That's fine, because paste is cheap, and people often complain about stock paste doing it's job poorly.
So I took this moment to buy a tube of Arctic Silver ceramique paste and a green (sound activated) cold cathode from NewEgg which was boxed and shipped within three hours. Score one for NewEgg again!
On Monday, when the package was scheduled to be delivered, I'm anxiously tracking the package and I notice that UPS seems not to be able to find my apartment. Odd, I think, since I've never had problems before. My address was correct, confirmed by Ashley and Nell at NewEgg as well as someone at UPS who (through no fault of his own) wasn't very clear because of crappy phones on UPS's side.
NewEgg is a restricted shipper, so it seems, and issues with package delivery require re-authorization in order to be re-delivered. This is a stupid policy, I think, but Nell at NewEgg took the time to make it right and on Tuesday evening after work my package was there.
To make things even MORE annoying, the RMA's are delivered on NewEgg's dock by this time. UPS confirmed delivery of BOTH sets (sent a day apart, and spanning a weekend) but NewEgg hadn't begun processing them. I began getting notices that they were being processed when I get a new one. The Intel board is out of stock and they don't know when it's coming back. They graciously waived the restocking fee and refunded me the full purchase price of the board...
Twice...
GREAT! What about shipping the damn things to me? Or shipping them both BACK? As of that moment, I almost kicked the wall. I had become so infuriated with this whole processes. After nearly three weeks, I've still got 0 of 2 systems functional and I've lost money shipping boards that, as of now, I can use as much as if I hadn't bought anything.
Because I'm so sick of waiting, I just bought two new boards from NewEgg. After discussions with Perry about his experiences with Intel, I decided I'd use an MSI board since I've had a nearly decent experience with them before.
So I submitted my order, and in the process of the submission, the product was pulled from NewEgg's site! Wow... Can it GET any worse?
So... Round three.
I've since ordered two of these from Gigabyte. I've not personally used a Gigabyte board but from the people that have I hear you love them or hate them. Either they cause major issues or work flawlessly.
I've heard the same thing about Chaintech, and my experience with them has been that they're great, so I decided to take a chance on it. Hopefully, now, I'll be able to get my system going. :)
And maybe get NewEgg to make up for my loss on shipping the boards around.
I closed last time with the new RAM on backorder from NewEgg, 2 dried motherboards on a shipment back to NewEgg and 16 GB of incompatible RAM also trekking across the country to NewEgg's RMA department.
Shortly after blogging about this the RAM came back in stock. And when I say shortly, I mean in a matter of minutes. That was great... Except that NewEgg didn't seem to have information about tracking.
Come Tuesday morning at about 10 am I got a confirmation letter that my package had been shipped... By 11 am I had the package in my hands. While I am not complaining about NewEgg's shipping, or even UPS, the total lack of information is inconsiderate. I buy packages from companies that don't provide shipping info, and I'm cool with that. But when you provide a service, I expect it to be half effecient. Four days without notification of a shipment is too long when packages can be shipped in half a day.
Anyway, I now have 8GB of RAM sitting on my desk. A long week drags on when I realize that I will need more thermal paste for the CPU coolers. Unmounting them a few times, then tucking the processors back into storage means the paste goes bad. That's fine, because paste is cheap, and people often complain about stock paste doing it's job poorly.
So I took this moment to buy a tube of Arctic Silver ceramique paste and a green (sound activated) cold cathode from NewEgg which was boxed and shipped within three hours. Score one for NewEgg again!
On Monday, when the package was scheduled to be delivered, I'm anxiously tracking the package and I notice that UPS seems not to be able to find my apartment. Odd, I think, since I've never had problems before. My address was correct, confirmed by Ashley and Nell at NewEgg as well as someone at UPS who (through no fault of his own) wasn't very clear because of crappy phones on UPS's side.
NewEgg is a restricted shipper, so it seems, and issues with package delivery require re-authorization in order to be re-delivered. This is a stupid policy, I think, but Nell at NewEgg took the time to make it right and on Tuesday evening after work my package was there.
To make things even MORE annoying, the RMA's are delivered on NewEgg's dock by this time. UPS confirmed delivery of BOTH sets (sent a day apart, and spanning a weekend) but NewEgg hadn't begun processing them. I began getting notices that they were being processed when I get a new one. The Intel board is out of stock and they don't know when it's coming back. They graciously waived the restocking fee and refunded me the full purchase price of the board...
Twice...
GREAT! What about shipping the damn things to me? Or shipping them both BACK? As of that moment, I almost kicked the wall. I had become so infuriated with this whole processes. After nearly three weeks, I've still got 0 of 2 systems functional and I've lost money shipping boards that, as of now, I can use as much as if I hadn't bought anything.
Because I'm so sick of waiting, I just bought two new boards from NewEgg. After discussions with Perry about his experiences with Intel, I decided I'd use an MSI board since I've had a nearly decent experience with them before.
So I submitted my order, and in the process of the submission, the product was pulled from NewEgg's site! Wow... Can it GET any worse?
So... Round three.
I've since ordered two of these from Gigabyte. I've not personally used a Gigabyte board but from the people that have I hear you love them or hate them. Either they cause major issues or work flawlessly.
I've heard the same thing about Chaintech, and my experience with them has been that they're great, so I decided to take a chance on it. Hopefully, now, I'll be able to get my system going. :)
And maybe get NewEgg to make up for my loss on shipping the boards around.
Intel Build Nightmare
Today I need to vent, nothing more. But I hope in my venting it helps someone.
In April I built the first powerhouse computer I've ever owned. Until then, I've been building on a budget - because of our move to D.C. my wife and I have been able to do things that require money we've never been able to, like spend it. Mine, naturally, went into computing.
So I built a Tyan S2927 system with two AMD Socket F Opterons 2212's. I was moving from 512 MB to 2GB, so I didn't get more in hopes that I could max the board out in a year cheaper. I threw in an nVidia GeForce 7600 GS (512 MB) to help develop and/or debug Nouveau. In the hopes that Hewlett-Packard released LightScribe specs for Free Software developers, I got a Samsung DVD burner that was LightScribe capable.
Anyway... Several months after building the system, I was pleased, but actually slightly regretting the purchase. I had this powerhouse that I barely used. While running two KVM guests and doing my "normal" stuff I still didn't push this system to it's limits, which was the point, but it was still horridly under utilized for me.
Meanwhile, at work, I'm pounding out PHP on a Pentium 4 with 512 MB and a 32MB nVidia card. The mouse jerks, and windows pop open grinding this aging beast to a halt.
The time had come to buy a new work computer, which was quickly spec-ed out by me and approved. During this build, I kept regretting my home purchase more and more... For under $800 I could build a Core 2 Duo system (with virtualization support), double the memory and... this is HUGE... get working 3D drivers that were Free Software!
So the idea of a swap occured to me, which I floated to my company who took it. Here, I could provide them a slightly used but well maintained server-grade system and all they had to do was buy me a new Intel based desktop. My company, luckily, is Free Software friendly and was actually happy to have me swapping this out AND getting what I want. it also saved them $600 over buying new parts. :)
So began my double Intel build - the second Intel build I've done, and the first I'd see through to completion. The previous ended when the motherboard, memory and processors were ALL found to be incompatible (due to a mobo maker's error and/or unethical spec listing).
In one large order we got a spare backup server, a spare virtual server node, my replacement home system and my new office system. In a few days, the UPS driver was leaving them in the middle of the hallway downstairs - but this is nothing new.
So, I gleefully bring my system in the next day and begin the swap out. Many parts are identical, mostly by design. The Core 2 Duo (E6600) processor dropped happily into the Intel DG965SS motherboard. The included heatsink (Intel does this? AMD decided not to on the Socket F processors) looks neat, and is a snap to install (no pun intended).
Unfortunately, the fan power cable got caught in the fan the first few times, causing the board to power down. I seated and reseated the board and ensured that it wasn't grounded and still the thing wouldn't stop powering down. Eventually, it just stopped spinning up, though the power light came on. :)
I figured the board was fried, so I packaged it up and decided to wait until the morning when I could test the "copy" at work.
The next morning I unpacked the virgin DG965SS board, a fresh Core 2 Duo processor, 4 more gigs of that g.Skill RAM and a fresh Silverstone power supply, mounted everything and powered it on... Once again, the fans spun and then died. It's not two fried boards, something incompatible here.
I removed the memory this time and the fans spun up and stayed there. Then, the system let out three wonderful screeches - diagnostic codes! The board is ALIVE!
I replaced the memory with some DDR2 ECC sticks that i knew worked and the board chirped yet another diagnostic code. Bad RAM. :)
So I scouer NewEgg, already feeling dimwitted for buying the wrong RAM and I find some Kingston RAM that people claim worked well with their G965 based boards - the timings were right... This was my RAM!
I then RMAed the dead board and returned the memory (at a loss due to restocking fees) and ordered a new set of 8 GB.
Today, the new memory arrived. Having not had a new work system OR a usable home system (I used my wife's rig) of my own, I was quite excited for this arrival. I connected the board and PSU and RAM and whatnot and inserted the new RAM... Spin up - die.
Spin up - die.
Die.
So... My week hasn't been to grand. :) I'm sitting here with three half assembled systems, boxes everywhere and a new set of RAM (KVR800D2N5K2/2G) on backorder with NewEgg.
It almost makes me curse the computer gods... But oh well... For now, this is the price for Freedom. :)
In April I built the first powerhouse computer I've ever owned. Until then, I've been building on a budget - because of our move to D.C. my wife and I have been able to do things that require money we've never been able to, like spend it. Mine, naturally, went into computing.
So I built a Tyan S2927 system with two AMD Socket F Opterons 2212's. I was moving from 512 MB to 2GB, so I didn't get more in hopes that I could max the board out in a year cheaper. I threw in an nVidia GeForce 7600 GS (512 MB) to help develop and/or debug Nouveau. In the hopes that Hewlett-Packard released LightScribe specs for Free Software developers, I got a Samsung DVD burner that was LightScribe capable.
Anyway... Several months after building the system, I was pleased, but actually slightly regretting the purchase. I had this powerhouse that I barely used. While running two KVM guests and doing my "normal" stuff I still didn't push this system to it's limits, which was the point, but it was still horridly under utilized for me.
Meanwhile, at work, I'm pounding out PHP on a Pentium 4 with 512 MB and a 32MB nVidia card. The mouse jerks, and windows pop open grinding this aging beast to a halt.
The time had come to buy a new work computer, which was quickly spec-ed out by me and approved. During this build, I kept regretting my home purchase more and more... For under $800 I could build a Core 2 Duo system (with virtualization support), double the memory and... this is HUGE... get working 3D drivers that were Free Software!
So the idea of a swap occured to me, which I floated to my company who took it. Here, I could provide them a slightly used but well maintained server-grade system and all they had to do was buy me a new Intel based desktop. My company, luckily, is Free Software friendly and was actually happy to have me swapping this out AND getting what I want. it also saved them $600 over buying new parts. :)
So began my double Intel build - the second Intel build I've done, and the first I'd see through to completion. The previous ended when the motherboard, memory and processors were ALL found to be incompatible (due to a mobo maker's error and/or unethical spec listing).
In one large order we got a spare backup server, a spare virtual server node, my replacement home system and my new office system. In a few days, the UPS driver was leaving them in the middle of the hallway downstairs - but this is nothing new.
So, I gleefully bring my system in the next day and begin the swap out. Many parts are identical, mostly by design. The Core 2 Duo (E6600) processor dropped happily into the Intel DG965SS motherboard. The included heatsink (Intel does this? AMD decided not to on the Socket F processors) looks neat, and is a snap to install (no pun intended).
Unfortunately, the fan power cable got caught in the fan the first few times, causing the board to power down. I seated and reseated the board and ensured that it wasn't grounded and still the thing wouldn't stop powering down. Eventually, it just stopped spinning up, though the power light came on. :)
I figured the board was fried, so I packaged it up and decided to wait until the morning when I could test the "copy" at work.
The next morning I unpacked the virgin DG965SS board, a fresh Core 2 Duo processor, 4 more gigs of that g.Skill RAM and a fresh Silverstone power supply, mounted everything and powered it on... Once again, the fans spun and then died. It's not two fried boards, something incompatible here.
I removed the memory this time and the fans spun up and stayed there. Then, the system let out three wonderful screeches - diagnostic codes! The board is ALIVE!
I replaced the memory with some DDR2 ECC sticks that i knew worked and the board chirped yet another diagnostic code. Bad RAM. :)
So I scouer NewEgg, already feeling dimwitted for buying the wrong RAM and I find some Kingston RAM that people claim worked well with their G965 based boards - the timings were right... This was my RAM!
I then RMAed the dead board and returned the memory (at a loss due to restocking fees) and ordered a new set of 8 GB.
Today, the new memory arrived. Having not had a new work system OR a usable home system (I used my wife's rig) of my own, I was quite excited for this arrival. I connected the board and PSU and RAM and whatnot and inserted the new RAM... Spin up - die.
Spin up - die.
Die.
So... My week hasn't been to grand. :) I'm sitting here with three half assembled systems, boxes everywhere and a new set of RAM (KVR800D2N5K2/2G) on backorder with NewEgg.
It almost makes me curse the computer gods... But oh well... For now, this is the price for Freedom. :)
Speak your mind, be open to responce.
Right now "Open Source" is in a bit of a jam. Why? For years projects/companies have been using the term "Open Source" to describe closed products.
It's a situation Free Software advocates understand dearly - for years we've been trying to explain how the term "Open Source" is confusing when it's goal is to describe the exact same freedoms Open Source supposedly heralded as a business's dream.
"Open Source" is no longer a method to introduce Freedom to business, it's a buzzword to mean "Shareware"... Projects that doesn't view it that way have a fair share of Free Software developers anyway.
I'd argue that true "Open Source" developers should re-adopt the term Free Software - rather than explaining why you're REALLY Open Source, you can explain why it's Free as in Freedom and how that's not bad to business. :)
Anyway, that's not the point of this entry, it's just the train that led to my complaint of the day.
While checking Linux Today over the past several months I've noticed a growing trend. Firstly, they're reporting more anti-freedom opinions that ever before (oddly, there's more ads for Microsoft too...) and increasingly, authors of articles there are not open to receive comments and feedback on what they write.
Check it out yourself... Glance over Linux Today (or any news site, for that matter) and check out the first 5 articles that interest you a bit. Read the articles, and then try to find the e-mail address of the author.
Bloggers tend to have their addresses out more than "News sites", but many bloggers even don't have their addresses easily accessible.
I'm guilty of this, and I didn't even know it.
Bloggers, this is a call to make yourself accessible! You've got opinions you feel important enough to share, you should be open to feedback on them!
News Sites: I don't read your articles if I can't contact your authors. That means that I don't click your ads (as a webmaster, I DO click ads for sites I like - bandwidth, servers and staff aren't free!). That means the VALUE of your site decreases just that much.
The internet is open, like it or not. It's a multi-way platform, like it or not. Don't take without giving, don't speak without listening.
I'd like to, now, thank two people (and give props to their sites) for being not only open, but friendly as well.
Scott Ruecker of LXer.com and Michael Larabel of Phoronix.com. Thanks guys, you set great examples!
My e-mail address is kevin@foreverdean.info - I'll find somewhere to put it to make it easier to find. :D
It's a situation Free Software advocates understand dearly - for years we've been trying to explain how the term "Open Source" is confusing when it's goal is to describe the exact same freedoms Open Source supposedly heralded as a business's dream.
"Open Source" is no longer a method to introduce Freedom to business, it's a buzzword to mean "Shareware"... Projects that doesn't view it that way have a fair share of Free Software developers anyway.
I'd argue that true "Open Source" developers should re-adopt the term Free Software - rather than explaining why you're REALLY Open Source, you can explain why it's Free as in Freedom and how that's not bad to business. :)
Anyway, that's not the point of this entry, it's just the train that led to my complaint of the day.
While checking Linux Today over the past several months I've noticed a growing trend. Firstly, they're reporting more anti-freedom opinions that ever before (oddly, there's more ads for Microsoft too...) and increasingly, authors of articles there are not open to receive comments and feedback on what they write.
Check it out yourself... Glance over Linux Today (or any news site, for that matter) and check out the first 5 articles that interest you a bit. Read the articles, and then try to find the e-mail address of the author.
Bloggers tend to have their addresses out more than "News sites", but many bloggers even don't have their addresses easily accessible.
I'm guilty of this, and I didn't even know it.
Bloggers, this is a call to make yourself accessible! You've got opinions you feel important enough to share, you should be open to feedback on them!
News Sites: I don't read your articles if I can't contact your authors. That means that I don't click your ads (as a webmaster, I DO click ads for sites I like - bandwidth, servers and staff aren't free!). That means the VALUE of your site decreases just that much.
The internet is open, like it or not. It's a multi-way platform, like it or not. Don't take without giving, don't speak without listening.
I'd like to, now, thank two people (and give props to their sites) for being not only open, but friendly as well.
Scott Ruecker of LXer.com and Michael Larabel of Phoronix.com. Thanks guys, you set great examples!
My e-mail address is kevin@foreverdean.info - I'll find somewhere to put it to make it easier to find. :D
Douchebag attaches religions zealotry to "hacking"
A cracker (who is being mistakenly referred to as a "hacker" by the media) using the name "Gabriel" claims to have gotten a pre-publication version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Claiming that he is honoring the words of the Pope, and preventing youth from turning to Neo Paganism, he hopes the spoilers will make the book less enjoyable.
He then plugs an anti-Islam site.
I like spoilers. They help me build up anticipation. Spoliers don't tell a story like the author's writing can, and it doens't spoil the plot, to me.
I don't care about Harry Potter any more than any other mundane book or movie I've watched (Robert Jordan's works are not mundane).
Gabriel will, however, go down in my book as one thing - an asshole.
Live and let live.
Claiming that he is honoring the words of the Pope, and preventing youth from turning to Neo Paganism, he hopes the spoilers will make the book less enjoyable.
He then plugs an anti-Islam site.
I like spoilers. They help me build up anticipation. Spoliers don't tell a story like the author's writing can, and it doens't spoil the plot, to me.
I don't care about Harry Potter any more than any other mundane book or movie I've watched (Robert Jordan's works are not mundane).
Gabriel will, however, go down in my book as one thing - an asshole.
Live and let live.
Re: Consequences of Closed Source Software in Linux
I came across an article today that caught my interest. It can be found here [OSweekly.com].
Below is my reply, bolded text is quotation from his article.
Matt,
Firstly, thank you for the mainly neutral article on Libre vs restricted software. Granted, I don't expect anyone to be fully neutral but I do expect that legitimate, professional writers address topics in such a way.
I've very firmly in the "purist" category. Many years ago, while running Windows XP I got fed up with constant issues and sought out an alternative. I ended up installing an old (and admittedly pretty bad version) of Debian, perhaps Potato. It didn't suit me, and I ended up installing a few other things. I managed to settle for a while on SimplyMepis, a distro known for blending Libre and restricted software for "ease of use" and "hardware compatibility."
However, I began noticing many of the same issues as I did on Windows, crashes, lockups and glitches. Granted, it was much better than XP, but still annoying enough to hamper my productivity.
As I learned more and more about my system, I came to understand that while GNU/Linux was technically superior, it wasn't something inherent in GNU/Linux itself, but stemmed directly from the freedom protected by the GPL and other Free Software licenses.
I now run 100% software libre on my own computers, including my system at work. I wasn't born some software nut, or raised in a nut case family distrustful of everything, I learned to value my freedom, and see it all as an ethical issue, from HAVING it.
Knowing a bit of my progression, I'd like to address a few things from your article.
"I suspect that many purists are concerned about possible contamination of open source as a whole and fear the potential for quality being lost in the shuffle. In short, who knows what their deal is?"
At this point, it's no longer about technical superiority for me. That's why I moved to GNU/Linux. However, I've come to believe that "Freedom" is the greatest for of superiority. If an operating system supports one hard drive, one video card, one processor and respects my freedom, it's superior to a system that supports ten thousand devices and trods on my freedom. My personal fear when discussing "Closed source" software is that people will adopt GNU/Linux without understanding WHY it's better, and because of this, they won't learn to value their freedom. As more restricted software is "standard" on GNU/Linux, quality will gradully decline - ultimately GNU/Linux will be just as buggy as Windows and just as restrictive. Everyone looses in this case.
"To those who still choose to harbor harsh feelings toward proprietary software, I think I would point out that like it or not, some distros have been and will continue to include it. Now, I’m neither downing this fact or supporting it, I’m merely pointing out that this is a fact of life and we might as well make the best of it."
I don't harbor harsh feelings towards non-free software; I think the vast majority of so-called "purists" don't either. We've come to realize that restricting users is unethical; it violates the concepts of community. Information such as art and science should be shared freely: without benefiting humanity these things are useless endeavours. Instead, our issue is with the mentality that restricting users is okay, and even more, that restricting users should be "common". If Microsoft or Adobe has a program today that is restrictively licensed and tomorrow releases it unchanged under the GPL the unacceptable actions have been removed. The code is the same, but it's now Libre!
"That and to back off when criticizing the distributions that have finally met the needs of the common user through straightforward simplicity."
I'm a bit confused by this statement, truthfully. Both because I'm unsure how you intended it, and because I know I already have strong views about what it implies.
I see nothing wrong with making an operating system simple. I'd not use a system that wasn't simple. This statement was tacked on behind another statement involving "purist" distros which makes me believe you're implying that "Imposing license restrictions on users makes things simpler, more straightforward and better."
This is where I disagree, if that is what the statement meant. Back to my previous point of GNU/Linux getting it's technical superiority as a RESULT of freedom. But to add more, I can't find a single instance where I'd feel it's beneficial to be restricted to do something with my computer.
If a wifi card doesn't have libre drivers then that card is a paperweight, it holds no more value than the materials it is composed of. The problem is that users buy hardware designed for Windows and feel irritated that it doesn't work with GNU/Linux. Having had the opposite happen, I know the irritation. I've been building systems for GNU/Linux for years, and I've got no complaints. On the flipside, I don't expect Windows to install flawlessly on that same system (for the record, i've tried and I have yet to have a sound card work without "tweaking").
"Another factor that is helping in noticing the rise in proprietary software inclusion with specific distributions is the complete lack of open source alternatives."
I disagree here. The issue isn't so much that this software is being added, but that users believe it's needed. The example you proceeded to give was a movie editing application.
While many people will immediatly react to this sentiment, I'll say it. If you can't do it with libre tools the thing shouldn't be done. I have told that to a screenwriter and CG artist who depends on many restrictive tools. I have told that to employeers right before quitting jobs.
"I believe another simple fact of life is that people are going to have to get used to the issue of Windows migrants bringing their need for specific applications along with them. This would certainly explain the explosion is WINE popularity for sure."
I believe it's sad if this is where anyone's settled. I don't feel antipathy to those that use restrictive software, I feel sadness, actually. Nobody likes feeling powerless. America is dependant on "foreign oil" and it makes us feel restricted. We're all on a budget, we have a limited suppy of money, and it rankles everyone at some point. Depending on ONE tools so much that it paralyzes you, and prevents you from making certain decisions is sad and a bit scary to me. Imagine the state of the world if mechanics couldn't choose to use one brand of tools over another, or if doctors were required to use one brand of drug irrespective of it's effectiveness or the side-effects. The same thing applies to software, perhaps even more so considering that alternatives can be created with freely shared knowledge and time.
"So, if we are so quick to allow proprietary applications in WINE, why the resistance and even downright resentment with proprietary applications then? Simple, the rules of the GPL disallow it. This may not seem fair, but regardless, this is simply how it is."
Many people use Wine to run games or restrictive Windows applications. I once asked "If GNU/Linux is a libre OS, why make a tool to run restrictive applications?" I asked the same thing about the existance of the ReactOS project (http://www.reactos.org/).
Wine and ReactOS are essentially bug fixes to the problem of restrictions. In a world with several mature, Libre operating systems, it is understandable to try to introduce people to freedom gradually. Let people try GNU/Linux and bring over that application or two they are still dependant on: in time they'll learn to do without it.
The problem Wine and ReactOS case is that people look at it from the other side: even GNU/Linux has non-free things, so it's not so bad. As more and more people come to GNU/Linux because they CAN bring their non-free apllications the messages, ideas and concepts of Freedom are dilluted more and more.
I firmly believe that GNU/Linux does only ONE thing better than Windows, and that is be a Libre OS. When you sacrifice that, all is lost, because now you have a restrictive, buggy system and it doesn't support "all" of the hardware around.
Thanks for taking the time to read that. :)
-Kevin Dean
Below is my reply, bolded text is quotation from his article.
Matt,
Firstly, thank you for the mainly neutral article on Libre vs restricted software. Granted, I don't expect anyone to be fully neutral but I do expect that legitimate, professional writers address topics in such a way.
I've very firmly in the "purist" category. Many years ago, while running Windows XP I got fed up with constant issues and sought out an alternative. I ended up installing an old (and admittedly pretty bad version) of Debian, perhaps Potato. It didn't suit me, and I ended up installing a few other things. I managed to settle for a while on SimplyMepis, a distro known for blending Libre and restricted software for "ease of use" and "hardware compatibility."
However, I began noticing many of the same issues as I did on Windows, crashes, lockups and glitches. Granted, it was much better than XP, but still annoying enough to hamper my productivity.
As I learned more and more about my system, I came to understand that while GNU/Linux was technically superior, it wasn't something inherent in GNU/Linux itself, but stemmed directly from the freedom protected by the GPL and other Free Software licenses.
I now run 100% software libre on my own computers, including my system at work. I wasn't born some software nut, or raised in a nut case family distrustful of everything, I learned to value my freedom, and see it all as an ethical issue, from HAVING it.
Knowing a bit of my progression, I'd like to address a few things from your article.
"I suspect that many purists are concerned about possible contamination of open source as a whole and fear the potential for quality being lost in the shuffle. In short, who knows what their deal is?"
At this point, it's no longer about technical superiority for me. That's why I moved to GNU/Linux. However, I've come to believe that "Freedom" is the greatest for of superiority. If an operating system supports one hard drive, one video card, one processor and respects my freedom, it's superior to a system that supports ten thousand devices and trods on my freedom. My personal fear when discussing "Closed source" software is that people will adopt GNU/Linux without understanding WHY it's better, and because of this, they won't learn to value their freedom. As more restricted software is "standard" on GNU/Linux, quality will gradully decline - ultimately GNU/Linux will be just as buggy as Windows and just as restrictive. Everyone looses in this case.
"To those who still choose to harbor harsh feelings toward proprietary software, I think I would point out that like it or not, some distros have been and will continue to include it. Now, I’m neither downing this fact or supporting it, I’m merely pointing out that this is a fact of life and we might as well make the best of it."
I don't harbor harsh feelings towards non-free software; I think the vast majority of so-called "purists" don't either. We've come to realize that restricting users is unethical; it violates the concepts of community. Information such as art and science should be shared freely: without benefiting humanity these things are useless endeavours. Instead, our issue is with the mentality that restricting users is okay, and even more, that restricting users should be "common". If Microsoft or Adobe has a program today that is restrictively licensed and tomorrow releases it unchanged under the GPL the unacceptable actions have been removed. The code is the same, but it's now Libre!
"That and to back off when criticizing the distributions that have finally met the needs of the common user through straightforward simplicity."
I'm a bit confused by this statement, truthfully. Both because I'm unsure how you intended it, and because I know I already have strong views about what it implies.
I see nothing wrong with making an operating system simple. I'd not use a system that wasn't simple. This statement was tacked on behind another statement involving "purist" distros which makes me believe you're implying that "Imposing license restrictions on users makes things simpler, more straightforward and better."
This is where I disagree, if that is what the statement meant. Back to my previous point of GNU/Linux getting it's technical superiority as a RESULT of freedom. But to add more, I can't find a single instance where I'd feel it's beneficial to be restricted to do something with my computer.
If a wifi card doesn't have libre drivers then that card is a paperweight, it holds no more value than the materials it is composed of. The problem is that users buy hardware designed for Windows and feel irritated that it doesn't work with GNU/Linux. Having had the opposite happen, I know the irritation. I've been building systems for GNU/Linux for years, and I've got no complaints. On the flipside, I don't expect Windows to install flawlessly on that same system (for the record, i've tried and I have yet to have a sound card work without "tweaking").
"Another factor that is helping in noticing the rise in proprietary software inclusion with specific distributions is the complete lack of open source alternatives."
I disagree here. The issue isn't so much that this software is being added, but that users believe it's needed. The example you proceeded to give was a movie editing application.
While many people will immediatly react to this sentiment, I'll say it. If you can't do it with libre tools the thing shouldn't be done. I have told that to a screenwriter and CG artist who depends on many restrictive tools. I have told that to employeers right before quitting jobs.
"I believe another simple fact of life is that people are going to have to get used to the issue of Windows migrants bringing their need for specific applications along with them. This would certainly explain the explosion is WINE popularity for sure."
I believe it's sad if this is where anyone's settled. I don't feel antipathy to those that use restrictive software, I feel sadness, actually. Nobody likes feeling powerless. America is dependant on "foreign oil" and it makes us feel restricted. We're all on a budget, we have a limited suppy of money, and it rankles everyone at some point. Depending on ONE tools so much that it paralyzes you, and prevents you from making certain decisions is sad and a bit scary to me. Imagine the state of the world if mechanics couldn't choose to use one brand of tools over another, or if doctors were required to use one brand of drug irrespective of it's effectiveness or the side-effects. The same thing applies to software, perhaps even more so considering that alternatives can be created with freely shared knowledge and time.
"So, if we are so quick to allow proprietary applications in WINE, why the resistance and even downright resentment with proprietary applications then? Simple, the rules of the GPL disallow it. This may not seem fair, but regardless, this is simply how it is."
Many people use Wine to run games or restrictive Windows applications. I once asked "If GNU/Linux is a libre OS, why make a tool to run restrictive applications?" I asked the same thing about the existance of the ReactOS project (http://www.reactos.org/).
Wine and ReactOS are essentially bug fixes to the problem of restrictions. In a world with several mature, Libre operating systems, it is understandable to try to introduce people to freedom gradually. Let people try GNU/Linux and bring over that application or two they are still dependant on: in time they'll learn to do without it.
The problem Wine and ReactOS case is that people look at it from the other side: even GNU/Linux has non-free things, so it's not so bad. As more and more people come to GNU/Linux because they CAN bring their non-free apllications the messages, ideas and concepts of Freedom are dilluted more and more.
I firmly believe that GNU/Linux does only ONE thing better than Windows, and that is be a Libre OS. When you sacrifice that, all is lost, because now you have a restrictive, buggy system and it doesn't support "all" of the hardware around.
Thanks for taking the time to read that. :)
-Kevin Dean
Daily Exercise (of Free Speech)
I found an old document today; a tattered piece of paper with some fanciful caligraphy on it.
This paper spoke of lunacy; of freedoms and rights. Of protections, and a government the devises it's power from the People, rather than making demands of the people.
It is a thing of legends and dreams, a true utopia of ethical government.
I like this part, specifically: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
The document is the Constitution; it is still a valid document and it is a ruling document.
I have the right to worship Jesus, or Allah, or nobody. I have the right to march for immigration reform, or to ban abortion or to support gay marriage. I have the right to tell my Senators that I dislike smoking bans and I want them removed. I can tell my Representative to allow Trans-fats! I can say George Bush is a moron! I can say that the answer to Life, The Universe and Everything is 42! I can say "there is no spoon!"
I can also fire off random numerical strings, like 4564764168735435435, 1111111111111111111110010101110. I can wear them on T-Shirts, or Bumperstickers or have them tattooed to my face if I like.
And in the USA, I can post 09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0 to my blog. I need not say what it does, and in fact I will not. But I stand firmly that posting this string is protected by my Constitutional Rights as a natural born citizen of the United States of America.
I encourage ALL Americans to spread this number freely. Because that's what it's always about with me, Freedom.
Think of it as "Free Speech" not "Free Beer". And once more, I love Free Speech!
This paper spoke of lunacy; of freedoms and rights. Of protections, and a government the devises it's power from the People, rather than making demands of the people.
It is a thing of legends and dreams, a true utopia of ethical government.
I like this part, specifically: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
The document is the Constitution; it is still a valid document and it is a ruling document.
I have the right to worship Jesus, or Allah, or nobody. I have the right to march for immigration reform, or to ban abortion or to support gay marriage. I have the right to tell my Senators that I dislike smoking bans and I want them removed. I can tell my Representative to allow Trans-fats! I can say George Bush is a moron! I can say that the answer to Life, The Universe and Everything is 42! I can say "there is no spoon!"
I can also fire off random numerical strings, like 4564764168735435435, 1111111111111111111110010101110. I can wear them on T-Shirts, or Bumperstickers or have them tattooed to my face if I like.
And in the USA, I can post 09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0 to my blog. I need not say what it does, and in fact I will not. But I stand firmly that posting this string is protected by my Constitutional Rights as a natural born citizen of the United States of America.
I encourage ALL Americans to spread this number freely. Because that's what it's always about with me, Freedom.
Think of it as "Free Speech" not "Free Beer". And once more, I love Free Speech!
Movies And Behavior
I understand fully the idea that libervisco is expressing here, positive thoughts lead to other positive thoughts. It's a clinically proven fact. It's the basis of countless rehabilitation programs, depression support groups and self-help books.
However, the idea that gore, or violence or death are some kind of evil is oddly askew.
When I think of gore, and mindless slaughter, I think of the Holocaust. Of the millions killed and tortured. While this isn't a pleasant thought I think it is good to remember the carnage. Both to prevserve the memories of the victims, and as a warning to the world: this is human nature.
Horror movies are no different, I think. In some way, such stark depeictions of evil remind us that humanity is, by and large, good. In some way, these movies poke fun at the murders and psychopaths of the world. The plots are often so disconnected that it takes a suspension of reality to even follow them.
It's escapism at it's finest. A reminder that we DON'T deal with these things daily. Like a roller coaster ride, it's thrilling, scary and perfectly safe. And when it's all done, you appreciate the steady ground just a little bit more.
However, the idea that gore, or violence or death are some kind of evil is oddly askew.
When I think of gore, and mindless slaughter, I think of the Holocaust. Of the millions killed and tortured. While this isn't a pleasant thought I think it is good to remember the carnage. Both to prevserve the memories of the victims, and as a warning to the world: this is human nature.
Horror movies are no different, I think. In some way, such stark depeictions of evil remind us that humanity is, by and large, good. In some way, these movies poke fun at the murders and psychopaths of the world. The plots are often so disconnected that it takes a suspension of reality to even follow them.
It's escapism at it's finest. A reminder that we DON'T deal with these things daily. Like a roller coaster ride, it's thrilling, scary and perfectly safe. And when it's all done, you appreciate the steady ground just a little bit more.
Man Jailed For Protesting Microsoft
In a disgusting affront to Free Speech, a man in China was restrained and placed under arrest for urging people to "oppose the Microsoft monopoly". The man raised a sign saying "Free Software - Open Source" and was quickly taken into custody.
In China, the values are spreading... Can the world help to let this man be heard?
In China, the values are spreading... Can the world help to let this man be heard?
Re: David Harrison wants to replace your Internet
Robert X. Cringely wrote on his site some ideas a friend (perhaps a colleague) has regarding the internet, and solutions to the problems of today.
Allow me to provide my insight to these things.
As usual, text in italics is quotation from the article.
David, who is not American, sees the U.S.-controlled Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) as an imperialist tool, which is also pretty much the way the Bush Administration sees it, too, though the Bushies are proud rather than upset.
I truly love the anti-American sentiment the world has. ICANN is very heavily US controlled and it does need to be abolished. In addition to being "evil", it's also highly inefficient, which can pose just as mnay problems. I AM an American. The fact that David is not is irrelevant to his points, you'd do better to leave them out.
If users want to participate in the Inet, they have to accept the Inet's Terms and Conditions, which say that ICANN has no authority here, thanks.
Already, I'm not liking this Inet idea. I'm one of the people who read every letter of the Terms of Service from my ISPs, and have rejected most of them. I've combed through every licensing agreement provided to me by Adobe, Apple, Microsoft, Macromedia and rejected them ALL.
Some terms are useful. But it needs to be understood very clearly that networks must not be aware of the traffic going through them. I'll get more into this later, as the point was raised. But needless to say, I'm not willing to put my time or money into a system that can (and there for, potentially MIGHT) distinguish between one kind of traffic and another.
A free browser patch would install a virtual switch. Click on the switch, and you route your calls through the Inet DNS Filter, and if appropriate, Inet's own DNS system.
Problem #1. Your use the term "free" which you probably mean to be "no cost". I point you to The Free Software Definition. Any software, to be useable, must be freely distributable. This means the source code must be accessible.
Problem #2. Browser patches are bad because they attempt to catch traffic at a browser level. What about non-HTTP traffic? A new DNS system would mean browsers (ALL OF THEM!), MUAs (ALL OF THEM), RSS readers (ALL OF THEM) would need to be patched. If you're arguing to make a substantial network change, this change must take place as a network stack level, NOT an application level. Furthermore, you've not mentioned ANYTHING about where(and if) the specifications for this system would be. Without specifications, the Free Software and Open Source communities wouldn't be able or willing to incorporate these changes and I'm sure even MCSE and proud Windows users would fear any network infrastructure developed by Microsoft.
During this time, any reputable domain name holder owning an Internet domain could ask for free registration of those same domains on the Inet system.
Here is the first of several strong hangups I have about this entire system. Value judgements. You say any reputable domain owner, how is this decided? What's reputable? If Microsoft has any say in this, all Linux related domains would be "disreputable", except perhaps Novell's for now. Microsoft claims Linux infringes IP owned by Microsoft. Let ICANN decide what's reputable and Inet itself gets blocked. The MPAA and RIAA would certainly consider warez and Torrent sites to be "disreputable".
Even activity that is ILLEGAL can fall clearly into the "reputable" situation. I'm not sure how much the American DMCA frightens Windows Professionals, but I'd consider several of those sites offering illegal downloads quite a bit of reputability.
Who then, sets the standard of "reputable"?
This costs a nominal fee for private individuals, and a slightly larger fee for commercial entities.
This sounds a lot like Microsoft's broken "licensing" fee concept. That the SAME software, doing the same thing in a DIFFERENT setting is somehow more valuable? What makes the registration of a domain more expensive for a business than an individual?
When you register a trademark as a domain on Inet, you automatically get all of the global alternatives in one go.
The problem with international things is that they often don't have international law to stand on. For instance, every nation in the world has trademark laws that define what can and can't be trademarked, and these laws vary. Furthermore, a trademark in one nation is not always recognized in another. To make this even worse, who gets the domain if two companies, in different countries, each have the same trademark?
Also, how do you plan to contend with the lack of domain names? Every dictionary word in English has been registered on the .com site, as well as all three and four letter combinations. Chances are, most of those have a trademark somewhere. Adding new top level domains would be useless because according to the global concept, adding .globe would just give trademark.globe to the holder of the Trademark, rather than creating new possible domains.
It seems this system is business oriented at it's very core, and while I have no problems with business, the greatest thing about the internet was that it leveled the field and gave small individuals equal footing in a global economy and social sphere. This comes, simply, because in the beginning the internet banned commercial activity at ALL. This system caters to it, and it scares me how easily people dismiss the implications of this.
Domain squatting would not be permitted, either.
This is another value judgement, though, I'm not sure it was intended to be.
I work for a marketing and webhosting company. Typically, when you hear those two terms together, you instantly assume spam. :D What we do is design web pages for small businesses who have no web presence at all. We handle everything, from domain registration to hosting. When we register the domains, we do them through our registrar, and take full control of the domain. Our terms of service state that at the customers' request, we'll transfer to domain to the customer. We're honest and reputable with this.
The problem comes 6 months into a contract when a company goes out of business, or refuses to pay us. We then have a domain registered and paid for that we don't use. Typically, we'll park the domain, or put some kind of advertising on it to cover the loss and let the domain expire at the end of the year. But sometimes, we get meaningful offers for the domains.
Would you consider us a squatter? If so, I disagree with this term of service. We don't intend to own domains we don't utilize, but in real world situations, it happens and I don't think there's a problem with it at all. If you DON'T consider us a squatter, what makes us different than any other company that owns domains they don't use?
Again, I go back to the point that a network shouldn't know the content that it transmits. The internet doesn't care about the intention of owning a domain and it's impossible to determine if something is legitimate without looking into "Intent".
Domain dispute resolution would be rapid: one week for evidence presentation, 24 hours to decide, and 24 hours for appeals. At which point the Inet DNS system would block the loser.
That sounds great in theory. The problem with that is in the real world, the more criteria you place on something, the harder it is to make fair rulings about it. If the terms say "First come, first serve" it's easy, look at the time stamp. But if you begin making concessions for business versus personal, intent, trademark (which varies nation to nation) and if something fits with a long terms of service.
The answer to those issues isn't setting a 24 hour time limit, but making the rules flexible enough and simple that disputes CAN'T arise in the first place.
All domain activity would operate through Inet, not be farmed out to resellers, since the system is too important, and has proved to be difficult to police on the Internet.
I really wish this had been two sentences. It would have been much easier to respond to. First off, I very much like the idea of centralized registration. Quite simply, there's no reason we need three layers or more to register a domain. Having recently lost a domain to Enom because (at realizing they were going to lose this my domain) pulled control from the registrant and locked the domain until it expired. Enom claims it doesn't happen, but it does and they did.
However, I disagree with your "policing" the internet. To me, it's a matter of efficiency and fluidity that the resellers detract from. It's not mine, your or anyone else's place to police the internet.
Inet domain holders would be expected to maintain control over the content of their users on sites with Inet domain registrations. Repeated failures to rapidly do so would result in the temporary or permanent loss of their Inet domain.
Again, I question the validity, privacy and fairness of a network (or in this case, system) that distinguishes between the traffic on it. Even worse, I fear a collective body that feels it is ethical to determine "validity" when dealing with thousands of jurisdictions and hundreds of cultures.
Inet DNS registrants would have a real name, address, and contact details (not a PO Box), and any communication from the Inet DNS system to the named registrar must be answered within 24 hours or the registration would be terminated.
At first glance, this means all child pornographers would be easily identified. It means all phishers could be identified. I, however, ask two questions.
#1. How will this system encourage and protect anonymous whistleblowers?
For instance, an intern was raped by a politico campaigning for the Presidency. John (a security guard) has access to the camera that can prove this, but GETTING that tape out, and to the public is illegal and may end his career (and possible other things, should the candidate become violent). John registers a domain and posts the video anonymously. If you don't think this is a viable reason to not want your name and address known, fine. It exmplifies why I'd not use such a system.
#2. How would inet actively verify this information, and assure that it's protected at ALL time from freedom infringing use?
Pornography sites could only register using the .xxx top-level domain scuttled not long ago by ICANN.
The reason this failed was because it's impossible. First, there are a hundred definitions of pornography, choosing one would catch things that aren't porn, or allow porn to not be caught. Second, does the .xxx apply ONLY to sites designed to "operate for the sole existance of porn"? My local radio station occasionally puts porn on their website. Not because it is porn, but because it's relevant to the entertainment industry when a celeb's home videos get leaked. Would then that radio station need to have a .xxx domain? Would MY site, primarily about software and Freedom, be .xxx because it has a picture of a graphic sexual act?
And third... You yourself SAID that if someone registers a trademark they get ALL domains associated with that. So, walmart.xxx would exist right alone with riaps.xxx. It works the other way around too. When a porn company registers their trademarked name, they also get the .com. You're going to say Wal-mart can use all of their domains, but Lemonade Cash can not? If you think that is fair, acceptable or both, your system is doomed.
Inet’s Terms and Conditions would prohibit child pornography, phishing, fraudulent commercial services, spam, denial of service attacks, and zombie networks.
As with regular porn, chiuld porn is almost impossible to define. While most people have a vague idea of what it is, there are some fringe cases. For example, this case of a teen couple charged for taking pictures of themselves.
One man's spam is another man's marketing. I've noticed that AOL uses user feedback to determine the legitimacy of spam. The problem with this is that when people agree to join mailing lists, they ARE soliciting for the messages. But 6 weeks down the road, they're sick of the messages and begin flagging them as spam. I have done this myself, set filters on my inbox that instantly delete things I willingly agreed to receive. How then, does one determine if a message actually IS spam?
The answer to fixing the problems of the internet isn't simple. EVERY protocol has issues that need to be addressed, but at the same time, we need to preserve the ideals of the internet, preserve Freedom and keep the internet as level as possible.
Allow me to provide my insight to these things.
As usual, text in italics is quotation from the article.
David, who is not American, sees the U.S.-controlled Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) as an imperialist tool, which is also pretty much the way the Bush Administration sees it, too, though the Bushies are proud rather than upset.
I truly love the anti-American sentiment the world has. ICANN is very heavily US controlled and it does need to be abolished. In addition to being "evil", it's also highly inefficient, which can pose just as mnay problems. I AM an American. The fact that David is not is irrelevant to his points, you'd do better to leave them out.
If users want to participate in the Inet, they have to accept the Inet's Terms and Conditions, which say that ICANN has no authority here, thanks.
Already, I'm not liking this Inet idea. I'm one of the people who read every letter of the Terms of Service from my ISPs, and have rejected most of them. I've combed through every licensing agreement provided to me by Adobe, Apple, Microsoft, Macromedia and rejected them ALL.
Some terms are useful. But it needs to be understood very clearly that networks must not be aware of the traffic going through them. I'll get more into this later, as the point was raised. But needless to say, I'm not willing to put my time or money into a system that can (and there for, potentially MIGHT) distinguish between one kind of traffic and another.
A free browser patch would install a virtual switch. Click on the switch, and you route your calls through the Inet DNS Filter, and if appropriate, Inet's own DNS system.
Problem #1. Your use the term "free" which you probably mean to be "no cost". I point you to The Free Software Definition. Any software, to be useable, must be freely distributable. This means the source code must be accessible.
Problem #2. Browser patches are bad because they attempt to catch traffic at a browser level. What about non-HTTP traffic? A new DNS system would mean browsers (ALL OF THEM!), MUAs (ALL OF THEM), RSS readers (ALL OF THEM) would need to be patched. If you're arguing to make a substantial network change, this change must take place as a network stack level, NOT an application level. Furthermore, you've not mentioned ANYTHING about where(and if) the specifications for this system would be. Without specifications, the Free Software and Open Source communities wouldn't be able or willing to incorporate these changes and I'm sure even MCSE and proud Windows users would fear any network infrastructure developed by Microsoft.
During this time, any reputable domain name holder owning an Internet domain could ask for free registration of those same domains on the Inet system.
Here is the first of several strong hangups I have about this entire system. Value judgements. You say any reputable domain owner, how is this decided? What's reputable? If Microsoft has any say in this, all Linux related domains would be "disreputable", except perhaps Novell's for now. Microsoft claims Linux infringes IP owned by Microsoft. Let ICANN decide what's reputable and Inet itself gets blocked. The MPAA and RIAA would certainly consider warez and Torrent sites to be "disreputable".
Even activity that is ILLEGAL can fall clearly into the "reputable" situation. I'm not sure how much the American DMCA frightens Windows Professionals, but I'd consider several of those sites offering illegal downloads quite a bit of reputability.
Who then, sets the standard of "reputable"?
This costs a nominal fee for private individuals, and a slightly larger fee for commercial entities.
This sounds a lot like Microsoft's broken "licensing" fee concept. That the SAME software, doing the same thing in a DIFFERENT setting is somehow more valuable? What makes the registration of a domain more expensive for a business than an individual?
When you register a trademark as a domain on Inet, you automatically get all of the global alternatives in one go.
The problem with international things is that they often don't have international law to stand on. For instance, every nation in the world has trademark laws that define what can and can't be trademarked, and these laws vary. Furthermore, a trademark in one nation is not always recognized in another. To make this even worse, who gets the domain if two companies, in different countries, each have the same trademark?
Also, how do you plan to contend with the lack of domain names? Every dictionary word in English has been registered on the .com site, as well as all three and four letter combinations. Chances are, most of those have a trademark somewhere. Adding new top level domains would be useless because according to the global concept, adding .globe would just give trademark.globe to the holder of the Trademark, rather than creating new possible domains.
It seems this system is business oriented at it's very core, and while I have no problems with business, the greatest thing about the internet was that it leveled the field and gave small individuals equal footing in a global economy and social sphere. This comes, simply, because in the beginning the internet banned commercial activity at ALL. This system caters to it, and it scares me how easily people dismiss the implications of this.
Domain squatting would not be permitted, either.
This is another value judgement, though, I'm not sure it was intended to be.
I work for a marketing and webhosting company. Typically, when you hear those two terms together, you instantly assume spam. :D What we do is design web pages for small businesses who have no web presence at all. We handle everything, from domain registration to hosting. When we register the domains, we do them through our registrar, and take full control of the domain. Our terms of service state that at the customers' request, we'll transfer to domain to the customer. We're honest and reputable with this.
The problem comes 6 months into a contract when a company goes out of business, or refuses to pay us. We then have a domain registered and paid for that we don't use. Typically, we'll park the domain, or put some kind of advertising on it to cover the loss and let the domain expire at the end of the year. But sometimes, we get meaningful offers for the domains.
Would you consider us a squatter? If so, I disagree with this term of service. We don't intend to own domains we don't utilize, but in real world situations, it happens and I don't think there's a problem with it at all. If you DON'T consider us a squatter, what makes us different than any other company that owns domains they don't use?
Again, I go back to the point that a network shouldn't know the content that it transmits. The internet doesn't care about the intention of owning a domain and it's impossible to determine if something is legitimate without looking into "Intent".
Domain dispute resolution would be rapid: one week for evidence presentation, 24 hours to decide, and 24 hours for appeals. At which point the Inet DNS system would block the loser.
That sounds great in theory. The problem with that is in the real world, the more criteria you place on something, the harder it is to make fair rulings about it. If the terms say "First come, first serve" it's easy, look at the time stamp. But if you begin making concessions for business versus personal, intent, trademark (which varies nation to nation) and if something fits with a long terms of service.
The answer to those issues isn't setting a 24 hour time limit, but making the rules flexible enough and simple that disputes CAN'T arise in the first place.
All domain activity would operate through Inet, not be farmed out to resellers, since the system is too important, and has proved to be difficult to police on the Internet.
I really wish this had been two sentences. It would have been much easier to respond to. First off, I very much like the idea of centralized registration. Quite simply, there's no reason we need three layers or more to register a domain. Having recently lost a domain to Enom because (at realizing they were going to lose this my domain) pulled control from the registrant and locked the domain until it expired. Enom claims it doesn't happen, but it does and they did.
However, I disagree with your "policing" the internet. To me, it's a matter of efficiency and fluidity that the resellers detract from. It's not mine, your or anyone else's place to police the internet.
Inet domain holders would be expected to maintain control over the content of their users on sites with Inet domain registrations. Repeated failures to rapidly do so would result in the temporary or permanent loss of their Inet domain.
Again, I question the validity, privacy and fairness of a network (or in this case, system) that distinguishes between the traffic on it. Even worse, I fear a collective body that feels it is ethical to determine "validity" when dealing with thousands of jurisdictions and hundreds of cultures.
Inet DNS registrants would have a real name, address, and contact details (not a PO Box), and any communication from the Inet DNS system to the named registrar must be answered within 24 hours or the registration would be terminated.
At first glance, this means all child pornographers would be easily identified. It means all phishers could be identified. I, however, ask two questions.
#1. How will this system encourage and protect anonymous whistleblowers?
For instance, an intern was raped by a politico campaigning for the Presidency. John (a security guard) has access to the camera that can prove this, but GETTING that tape out, and to the public is illegal and may end his career (and possible other things, should the candidate become violent). John registers a domain and posts the video anonymously. If you don't think this is a viable reason to not want your name and address known, fine. It exmplifies why I'd not use such a system.
#2. How would inet actively verify this information, and assure that it's protected at ALL time from freedom infringing use?
Pornography sites could only register using the .xxx top-level domain scuttled not long ago by ICANN.
The reason this failed was because it's impossible. First, there are a hundred definitions of pornography, choosing one would catch things that aren't porn, or allow porn to not be caught. Second, does the .xxx apply ONLY to sites designed to "operate for the sole existance of porn"? My local radio station occasionally puts porn on their website. Not because it is porn, but because it's relevant to the entertainment industry when a celeb's home videos get leaked. Would then that radio station need to have a .xxx domain? Would MY site, primarily about software and Freedom, be .xxx because it has a picture of a graphic sexual act?
And third... You yourself SAID that if someone registers a trademark they get ALL domains associated with that. So, walmart.xxx would exist right alone with riaps.xxx. It works the other way around too. When a porn company registers their trademarked name, they also get the .com. You're going to say Wal-mart can use all of their domains, but Lemonade Cash can not? If you think that is fair, acceptable or both, your system is doomed.
Inet’s Terms and Conditions would prohibit child pornography, phishing, fraudulent commercial services, spam, denial of service attacks, and zombie networks.
As with regular porn, chiuld porn is almost impossible to define. While most people have a vague idea of what it is, there are some fringe cases. For example, this case of a teen couple charged for taking pictures of themselves.
One man's spam is another man's marketing. I've noticed that AOL uses user feedback to determine the legitimacy of spam. The problem with this is that when people agree to join mailing lists, they ARE soliciting for the messages. But 6 weeks down the road, they're sick of the messages and begin flagging them as spam. I have done this myself, set filters on my inbox that instantly delete things I willingly agreed to receive. How then, does one determine if a message actually IS spam?
The answer to fixing the problems of the internet isn't simple. EVERY protocol has issues that need to be addressed, but at the same time, we need to preserve the ideals of the internet, preserve Freedom and keep the internet as level as possible.
Change Distros, Tell The Press!
Today Linux.com ran a letter written by Eric S. Raymond.
He changed distros, from Fedora to Ubuntu.
The story is found at http://enterprise.linux.com/article.pl?sid=07/02/21/1340237, because I don't even want to link it.
First off, I know who Eric S. Raymond is. I've read enough of his writing to know I dislike him. Respect him, yes, like him, certainly not. Just because I know of him doesn't mean I care. I don't know or care what distro Linus uses (except, now, in some odd sort of way that stems from my love of trivia).
It takes one of two things to actually write the media to announce you've changed distros. It takes a sense of arrogance far surpassing mine, or a really small mind.
My first responce was "Wow, this guy is arrogant." Then I read the article.
One reason he sited for leaving was RPM's inability to handle an upgrade. Holy shit, a 13 year Fedora user saying what ALL of the Debian community has been saying for years?
Because it took him 13 years to realize that, I am content to say that the article was written by the size of his brain, not arrogance.
*** NOTE: Eric S. Raymond is a very vocal member of the Open Source Movement, he's very strongly rejected the ideals of Freedom which I view to be central to my involvement and use of GNU/Linux and computing in general. It is his views, and the way in which he addresses them, that I have issue with. The man has not yet done anything to me directly for me to not like him... Except writing the media to announce a distro change. ***
He changed distros, from Fedora to Ubuntu.
The story is found at http://enterprise.linux.com/article.pl?sid=07/02/21/1340237, because I don't even want to link it.
First off, I know who Eric S. Raymond is. I've read enough of his writing to know I dislike him. Respect him, yes, like him, certainly not. Just because I know of him doesn't mean I care. I don't know or care what distro Linus uses (except, now, in some odd sort of way that stems from my love of trivia).
It takes one of two things to actually write the media to announce you've changed distros. It takes a sense of arrogance far surpassing mine, or a really small mind.
My first responce was "Wow, this guy is arrogant." Then I read the article.
One reason he sited for leaving was RPM's inability to handle an upgrade. Holy shit, a 13 year Fedora user saying what ALL of the Debian community has been saying for years?
Because it took him 13 years to realize that, I am content to say that the article was written by the size of his brain, not arrogance.
*** NOTE: Eric S. Raymond is a very vocal member of the Open Source Movement, he's very strongly rejected the ideals of Freedom which I view to be central to my involvement and use of GNU/Linux and computing in general. It is his views, and the way in which he addresses them, that I have issue with. The man has not yet done anything to me directly for me to not like him... Except writing the media to announce a distro change. ***
Gnome vs. KDE - My Take
It's been a long time since I've actually seen a Gnome vs. KDE battle end with more than "Use what works best for you". It seems that not discussing the Gnome vs. KDE thing is the "political correctness".
But Linus, being his typical loud-mouthed, arrogant and attention grabbing (these things are true, and are not bad in and of themselves. If you dispute this Linus, e-mail me, everyone else can shut up. :) ) self has fired off patches to Gnome in hopes of improving things as he sees fit. The debate, it seems, has stirred up again and is visible on Linux.com and Linuxnews.com.
My rant today will be about why both KDE and Gnome suck. I'm not even going to say "E17 is better than both of them" or "Afterstep does this." I'm simply going to comment on why both KDE and Gnome are not perfect solutions, and why you should be critical of everyone's opinions, and form your own before deciding.
For the sake of this article, I will use DEFAULT settings for KDE 3.5 (Nothing major has changed in any of those versions) and Gnome 2.14. It should be safe to apply these opinions to anything in the same version family.
Let's begin this with the biggest part of the desktop environment, the File Manager. It's a part of the desktop that a LOT of people ignore, but it's something that will play a deciding factor.
Nautilus vs. Konqueror
By default, Gnome's Nautilus File Manager uses what some people call a "spatial view". Clicking a folder opens another window while keeping the old one open. This behaviour is perhaps the most complained about feature I've ever come across while discussing the matter. For the record, there are two ways around that. Double middle-click will open the selected folder in Gnome's "Browser" mode. By selecting Edit -> Preferences -> Behaviour and choosing "Always open in Browser Window".
Konqueror, on the other hand, uses this "browser" mode by default. In fact, the File Manager IS the browser, much in the same way that Windows Explorer is (and Internet Explorer before that). In this case, however, it doesn't make the browser and the file manager suck. :D
On the matter of network transparency, Nautilus might be a bit more intuitive, but it is quite a bit less powerful. For instance, from a default Nautilus install, the option to view Samba shares is immediate, nothing needing configuration. The fact that icons are visible from the beginning make it quite a bit more intuitive than Konqueror.
Once configured properly, however, Konqueror excels, making the transition from local file to network file almost seamless. Nautilus is unable to CHMOD files via FTP, for instance, while Konqueror does it with the same look and feel that one would be used to while editing local files.
The final differentiating feature of K vs. N is the file movement dialogues. Most KDE users are familiar with his option, which appears by dragging and dropping a file from one location to another. Once the mouse button is released, the user has the option to cp, mv or ln the files. Nautilus merely moves the file.
At first, this annoyed me quite a bit. However, as I began using the GUI for more and more things (Yes, that's right, I'm a Linux user who had to LEARN the GUI... CLI is quite intuitive and works the same on ALL DE's) I found that this was less of an annoyance and more of a time saver.
Having evaluated MY personal use, I tend not to move files at all. I download everything to the Desktop, use it and then remove it. If it's a wallpaper, I move it to /home/kevin/content/theme/wallpaper. If it's a source tarball I'll FTP it to my server and delete it, or compile it and remove the sources. Everything OFF of my desktop is rather immutable. When I alter something in one of those folders, it's usually for backup, not use. I like COPYING files I'm backing up.
With those things in mind, both Konqueror and Nautilus are etrememly stable. Both will copy files and show files without many issues. Because of the few things they do differently, and my personal use, I declare Konqueror the winner in the file manager battle.
One other thing that nautilus and Konqueror both do are draw the desktop itself. They control the wallpaper on the screen, the icon placement all that jazz. As of Gnome 2.8, Gnome was UNABLE to set different wallpapers for different desktops. This is something I rather like about KDE. I have a dual monitor setup. The idea that I must have a repeatable wallpaper to be consistant is bad. The idea that my wallpaper must be unbroken in bad. Until my desktop environment can eliminate the physical space between the edges of the two monitors, they should make the break as smooth as possible. With KDE, and the different wallpaper, this is handled by treating the monitors differently, which is much less jarring to me that having a wallpaper broken mid-way.
Kwin vs. Metacity
An often overlooked part of a desktop environment is the window manager. Of course, anyone familiar with Compiz or Beryl will instantly refute this, in the 2D world, nobody really cares. :D
There is only one real difference between Kwin and Metacity in terms of usability in my mind. Kwin has "Advanced Window Placement" options. One thing that is CRITICAL for me is that my windows open where I want them. Kwin allows me to place each window, resize each window, pick a desktop and have these options saved and applied automatically every time.
I always open Kopete on desktop 6. I like that when I open Kopete while VIEWING iceweasel I don't have to move it over to 6 from 1, which I'm currently on.
Metacity does not provide many placement options, and only one in terms of which virtual desktop applications should go to. For this, it's quite easy for me to declare a winner for WM between "Gnome" and "KDE". Kwin for the win.
Kicker vs Gnome Panel
Kicker and Gnome Panel are the little applications that run at the bottom of the screen (Gnome Panel is at the top AND bottom) and are a container for your application launchers, contains your taskbar and your system tray.
Let me begin by pointing out something that has ALWAYS irked me. Most window managers put their window controls in the top-right corner of the window. To close a window, top-right. Most DE panels put the useful controls at the bottom. To open an application and then co close it, you have to move your mouse across a full screen (or two, in some cases) to close it. Keyboard shortcuts can eliminate this, but putting the controls at the TOP of the screen can save our little mouse a lot of "walking".
For this reason, I have to give some points to Gnome Panel. On a default install, the program menu is up top, just like Metacity's window controls.
Here's where it gets clunky though... Gnome splits it up! Damn you!
Kicker defaults to the bottom. However, it's a single panel, which can be dragged to the top in about as much time as it takes to drag the mouse up top to close the window.
Kicker has some nice animations and informational bubbles associated with many different things. While this isn't exactly a plus for usability, it is nice. Eye candy is ALWAYS good. :D
As a sub-set of Kicker/Gnome-Panel, I'll address the pager applet for both. Gnome's desktop switcher is VERY bland, in my opinion. Bland being that it is just a set of boring boxes, where KDE's pager pulls the icon of the application and places it in the little desktop. This is useful when you accidentally drag a window off the desktop, or just want an overview of what you've got.
However, I must add in now that I think both KDE and Gnome kicker/panel are lacking in comparison to the general setup of E17's bars. Anyone who's used a dual monitor setup for over a week will appreciate it. However, KDE and Gnome both tend to treat the monitors as extensions of each other. For instance, set Gnome or KDE to have 6 desktops on a single monitor system. Then, add a second monitor. It shows (and treats) each desktop as a double-wide monitor. This is a behaviour that I absolutely hate.
E17 allows each monitor to have virtual desktops. I can keep my browser open on one page, move the mouse over to the other monitor switch to my system monitor, pop over to my mail client and then switch back to the terminals that's open, all without moving the broser off the other monitor. I can still drag applications across to the other monitors, of course.
The final difference between KDE and Gnome I've noticed is contant and nagging; the taskbar. Gnome-panel tends to handle KDE application events poorly, where Kicker handles Gnome events pretty well. It is quite annoying to have a never ending Kopete bar flashing away at me.
GTK vs QT
One thing that is important to touch on briefly is the toolkits used to build the applications. The use of certain widgets and toolkits give applications a consistant look and feel. This is why Gaim is seen as a "Gnome app" even though it's NOT released by the Gnome Project.
Both, when used exclusivly, are pretty good. I don't really know much about the underlying technical aspects, but between GTK and QT, I prefer the GPL of QT better than the LGPL of GTK.
It's when used in comparison to each other, or with each other, that they display their relative weaknesses, which I think epitomize KDE and Gnome.
Gnome seems to accept themes MUCH more easily than KDE. A KDE theme touches many, but not all applications, even applications distributed as part of KDE. Kopete for instance, accepts PARTS of the KDE theme, but other parts of it are ignored.
GTK themes are applied more smoothly, affecting all GTK applications evenly.
I'll end my review today with "KDE" vs. "Gnome" without getting into the specific applications that also define my opinions. However, I think it important to note that I use applications from BOTH KDE and Gnome every day. One problem I notice that affects both KDE and Gnome is their ability to work together.
Running Kopete in Gnome looks out of place. Just as running Iceweasel in KDE looks like the proverbial sore thumb.
This is something many people have dismissed as inevitable, or insignifigant, but it's something that has always reseted on my list of flaws with the Free Software pool. I like my applications to all look consistant. I don't care if that's KDE style QT consistant or GTK style Gnome consistant.
The Portland project attempts to address how underlying things work between desktop environments, but it won't touch how they LOOK. There have been attempts in the past to do something with it. the gtk2-qt engine, for example, will do it's best to render GTK apps like QT ones, making Gnome programs look more like KDE ones. For the most part, it does a good job, except in one very noticable case... Mozilla stuff. This is kind of big for me, but given the advantage of a uniform look, I'll cope.
There is, however, nothing like this to convert QT applications to GTK. If there is, it remains elusive. The best option I've seen on the Gnome side is MetaTheme, which died on version 0.0.6, and that was several years ago. What this did was caught QT, GTK and Java UI widgets and rewrote them in a common theme. It could use on of several pre-made themes or import MSSTYLE themes, making everything look the same. I really like the idea there, but the lack of momentum meant the application had little flexibility.
Since neither KDE or Gnome can theme applications from the "other side", I consider BOTH of them flawed. This late in the game, KDE should have developed a way to integrate non-KDE applications better. And if Gnome is focused on on "sane defaults", there should really be some method of enforcing these defaults. After all, a User Interface that isn't consistant is really bad.
Both KDE and Gnome suck. End of the debate (not really, but I hope readers realize that they BOTH need work. :)
But Linus, being his typical loud-mouthed, arrogant and attention grabbing (these things are true, and are not bad in and of themselves. If you dispute this Linus, e-mail me, everyone else can shut up. :) ) self has fired off patches to Gnome in hopes of improving things as he sees fit. The debate, it seems, has stirred up again and is visible on Linux.com and Linuxnews.com.
My rant today will be about why both KDE and Gnome suck. I'm not even going to say "E17 is better than both of them" or "Afterstep does this." I'm simply going to comment on why both KDE and Gnome are not perfect solutions, and why you should be critical of everyone's opinions, and form your own before deciding.
For the sake of this article, I will use DEFAULT settings for KDE 3.5 (Nothing major has changed in any of those versions) and Gnome 2.14. It should be safe to apply these opinions to anything in the same version family.
Let's begin this with the biggest part of the desktop environment, the File Manager. It's a part of the desktop that a LOT of people ignore, but it's something that will play a deciding factor.
Nautilus vs. Konqueror
By default, Gnome's Nautilus File Manager uses what some people call a "spatial view". Clicking a folder opens another window while keeping the old one open. This behaviour is perhaps the most complained about feature I've ever come across while discussing the matter. For the record, there are two ways around that. Double middle-click will open the selected folder in Gnome's "Browser" mode. By selecting Edit -> Preferences -> Behaviour and choosing "Always open in Browser Window".
Konqueror, on the other hand, uses this "browser" mode by default. In fact, the File Manager IS the browser, much in the same way that Windows Explorer is (and Internet Explorer before that). In this case, however, it doesn't make the browser and the file manager suck. :D
On the matter of network transparency, Nautilus might be a bit more intuitive, but it is quite a bit less powerful. For instance, from a default Nautilus install, the option to view Samba shares is immediate, nothing needing configuration. The fact that icons are visible from the beginning make it quite a bit more intuitive than Konqueror.
Once configured properly, however, Konqueror excels, making the transition from local file to network file almost seamless. Nautilus is unable to CHMOD files via FTP, for instance, while Konqueror does it with the same look and feel that one would be used to while editing local files.
The final differentiating feature of K vs. N is the file movement dialogues. Most KDE users are familiar with his option, which appears by dragging and dropping a file from one location to another. Once the mouse button is released, the user has the option to cp, mv or ln the files. Nautilus merely moves the file.
At first, this annoyed me quite a bit. However, as I began using the GUI for more and more things (Yes, that's right, I'm a Linux user who had to LEARN the GUI... CLI is quite intuitive and works the same on ALL DE's) I found that this was less of an annoyance and more of a time saver.
Having evaluated MY personal use, I tend not to move files at all. I download everything to the Desktop, use it and then remove it. If it's a wallpaper, I move it to /home/kevin/content/theme/wallpaper. If it's a source tarball I'll FTP it to my server and delete it, or compile it and remove the sources. Everything OFF of my desktop is rather immutable. When I alter something in one of those folders, it's usually for backup, not use. I like COPYING files I'm backing up.
With those things in mind, both Konqueror and Nautilus are etrememly stable. Both will copy files and show files without many issues. Because of the few things they do differently, and my personal use, I declare Konqueror the winner in the file manager battle.
One other thing that nautilus and Konqueror both do are draw the desktop itself. They control the wallpaper on the screen, the icon placement all that jazz. As of Gnome 2.8, Gnome was UNABLE to set different wallpapers for different desktops. This is something I rather like about KDE. I have a dual monitor setup. The idea that I must have a repeatable wallpaper to be consistant is bad. The idea that my wallpaper must be unbroken in bad. Until my desktop environment can eliminate the physical space between the edges of the two monitors, they should make the break as smooth as possible. With KDE, and the different wallpaper, this is handled by treating the monitors differently, which is much less jarring to me that having a wallpaper broken mid-way.
Kwin vs. Metacity
An often overlooked part of a desktop environment is the window manager. Of course, anyone familiar with Compiz or Beryl will instantly refute this, in the 2D world, nobody really cares. :D
There is only one real difference between Kwin and Metacity in terms of usability in my mind. Kwin has "Advanced Window Placement" options. One thing that is CRITICAL for me is that my windows open where I want them. Kwin allows me to place each window, resize each window, pick a desktop and have these options saved and applied automatically every time.
I always open Kopete on desktop 6. I like that when I open Kopete while VIEWING iceweasel I don't have to move it over to 6 from 1, which I'm currently on.
Metacity does not provide many placement options, and only one in terms of which virtual desktop applications should go to. For this, it's quite easy for me to declare a winner for WM between "Gnome" and "KDE". Kwin for the win.
Kicker vs Gnome Panel
Kicker and Gnome Panel are the little applications that run at the bottom of the screen (Gnome Panel is at the top AND bottom) and are a container for your application launchers, contains your taskbar and your system tray.
Let me begin by pointing out something that has ALWAYS irked me. Most window managers put their window controls in the top-right corner of the window. To close a window, top-right. Most DE panels put the useful controls at the bottom. To open an application and then co close it, you have to move your mouse across a full screen (or two, in some cases) to close it. Keyboard shortcuts can eliminate this, but putting the controls at the TOP of the screen can save our little mouse a lot of "walking".
For this reason, I have to give some points to Gnome Panel. On a default install, the program menu is up top, just like Metacity's window controls.
Here's where it gets clunky though... Gnome splits it up! Damn you!
Kicker defaults to the bottom. However, it's a single panel, which can be dragged to the top in about as much time as it takes to drag the mouse up top to close the window.
Kicker has some nice animations and informational bubbles associated with many different things. While this isn't exactly a plus for usability, it is nice. Eye candy is ALWAYS good. :D
As a sub-set of Kicker/Gnome-Panel, I'll address the pager applet for both. Gnome's desktop switcher is VERY bland, in my opinion. Bland being that it is just a set of boring boxes, where KDE's pager pulls the icon of the application and places it in the little desktop. This is useful when you accidentally drag a window off the desktop, or just want an overview of what you've got.
However, I must add in now that I think both KDE and Gnome kicker/panel are lacking in comparison to the general setup of E17's bars. Anyone who's used a dual monitor setup for over a week will appreciate it. However, KDE and Gnome both tend to treat the monitors as extensions of each other. For instance, set Gnome or KDE to have 6 desktops on a single monitor system. Then, add a second monitor. It shows (and treats) each desktop as a double-wide monitor. This is a behaviour that I absolutely hate.
E17 allows each monitor to have virtual desktops. I can keep my browser open on one page, move the mouse over to the other monitor switch to my system monitor, pop over to my mail client and then switch back to the terminals that's open, all without moving the broser off the other monitor. I can still drag applications across to the other monitors, of course.
The final difference between KDE and Gnome I've noticed is contant and nagging; the taskbar. Gnome-panel tends to handle KDE application events poorly, where Kicker handles Gnome events pretty well. It is quite annoying to have a never ending Kopete bar flashing away at me.
GTK vs QT
One thing that is important to touch on briefly is the toolkits used to build the applications. The use of certain widgets and toolkits give applications a consistant look and feel. This is why Gaim is seen as a "Gnome app" even though it's NOT released by the Gnome Project.
Both, when used exclusivly, are pretty good. I don't really know much about the underlying technical aspects, but between GTK and QT, I prefer the GPL of QT better than the LGPL of GTK.
It's when used in comparison to each other, or with each other, that they display their relative weaknesses, which I think epitomize KDE and Gnome.
Gnome seems to accept themes MUCH more easily than KDE. A KDE theme touches many, but not all applications, even applications distributed as part of KDE. Kopete for instance, accepts PARTS of the KDE theme, but other parts of it are ignored.
GTK themes are applied more smoothly, affecting all GTK applications evenly.
I'll end my review today with "KDE" vs. "Gnome" without getting into the specific applications that also define my opinions. However, I think it important to note that I use applications from BOTH KDE and Gnome every day. One problem I notice that affects both KDE and Gnome is their ability to work together.
Running Kopete in Gnome looks out of place. Just as running Iceweasel in KDE looks like the proverbial sore thumb.
This is something many people have dismissed as inevitable, or insignifigant, but it's something that has always reseted on my list of flaws with the Free Software pool. I like my applications to all look consistant. I don't care if that's KDE style QT consistant or GTK style Gnome consistant.
The Portland project attempts to address how underlying things work between desktop environments, but it won't touch how they LOOK. There have been attempts in the past to do something with it. the gtk2-qt engine, for example, will do it's best to render GTK apps like QT ones, making Gnome programs look more like KDE ones. For the most part, it does a good job, except in one very noticable case... Mozilla stuff. This is kind of big for me, but given the advantage of a uniform look, I'll cope.
There is, however, nothing like this to convert QT applications to GTK. If there is, it remains elusive. The best option I've seen on the Gnome side is MetaTheme, which died on version 0.0.6, and that was several years ago. What this did was caught QT, GTK and Java UI widgets and rewrote them in a common theme. It could use on of several pre-made themes or import MSSTYLE themes, making everything look the same. I really like the idea there, but the lack of momentum meant the application had little flexibility.
Since neither KDE or Gnome can theme applications from the "other side", I consider BOTH of them flawed. This late in the game, KDE should have developed a way to integrate non-KDE applications better. And if Gnome is focused on on "sane defaults", there should really be some method of enforcing these defaults. After all, a User Interface that isn't consistant is really bad.
Both KDE and Gnome suck. End of the debate (not really, but I hope readers realize that they BOTH need work. :)
MySpace Not Guilty
If anyone had a duty to protect Julie Doe, it was her parents, not MySpace.
This quote comes from a Texas judge in a ruling in favour of MySpace yesterday. In this case, several families of sexual assault victims sued MySpace, claiming they have a duty to "protect the children".
Firstly, to the victims of sexual abuse, you're not alone. I'm a survivor of sexual abuse too.
Secondly to the families of sexual abuse victims, you have our support.
Thirdly, about damn time! There's an age old adage that says "Don't talk to strangers". I remember in school seeing videos of gruff old men pulling up in beat up cars offering little kids candy.
Are those videos still around? Despite the horrible (and dangerously wrong!) assumptions made about sex offenders, they did instill a sense of caution in children. You don't talk to strangers! Don't give your address to them. Don't give your phone number to them. Don't get in their car!
The same thing applies in the modern world, just, perhaps a bit differently. There ARE ways to form relationships with people online. I do, and have done it, seveal times. In fact, the relative safety of the internet makes such relationships MORE productive. Telling the truth is much easier when there's a "Quit" button. :)
That said, kids are dumb. Kids think they know what they're doing, what they're about, how the world works. It is a parent's place to teach their children the skills needed to make those distinctions, and to ensure that they don't have to use those skills until they're honed enough to be useful when needed.
The parents who allow their kids on MySpace without talking, teaching and listening are just as stupid as the parents who allow their kids to run off with unknown "friends". Parents should have a desire to know what happens in their kid's lives, those that don't fail at parenting.
And that's a bigger issue that MySpace will ever be.
This quote comes from a Texas judge in a ruling in favour of MySpace yesterday. In this case, several families of sexual assault victims sued MySpace, claiming they have a duty to "protect the children".
Firstly, to the victims of sexual abuse, you're not alone. I'm a survivor of sexual abuse too.
Secondly to the families of sexual abuse victims, you have our support.
Thirdly, about damn time! There's an age old adage that says "Don't talk to strangers". I remember in school seeing videos of gruff old men pulling up in beat up cars offering little kids candy.
Are those videos still around? Despite the horrible (and dangerously wrong!) assumptions made about sex offenders, they did instill a sense of caution in children. You don't talk to strangers! Don't give your address to them. Don't give your phone number to them. Don't get in their car!
The same thing applies in the modern world, just, perhaps a bit differently. There ARE ways to form relationships with people online. I do, and have done it, seveal times. In fact, the relative safety of the internet makes such relationships MORE productive. Telling the truth is much easier when there's a "Quit" button. :)
That said, kids are dumb. Kids think they know what they're doing, what they're about, how the world works. It is a parent's place to teach their children the skills needed to make those distinctions, and to ensure that they don't have to use those skills until they're honed enough to be useful when needed.
The parents who allow their kids on MySpace without talking, teaching and listening are just as stupid as the parents who allow their kids to run off with unknown "friends". Parents should have a desire to know what happens in their kid's lives, those that don't fail at parenting.
And that's a bigger issue that MySpace will ever be.
Re: Steve Jobs - Thoughts on Music
Jason kindly pointed me to a letter written by Steve Jobs. Jason's e-mail was titled "Open DRM", which piqued my curiosity like "Boiling Ice" would have. :)
The article can be found here for those who are interested.
Text in italics are quotes from the letter.
With the stunning global success of Apple’s iPod music player and iTunes online music store, some have called for Apple to “open” the digital rights management (DRM) system that Apple uses to protect its music against theft, so that music purchased from iTunes can be played on digital devices purchased from other companies, and protected music purchased from other online music stores can play on iPods.
Steve, this isn't something that is new, or even off the wall. A product that can NOT do this is not protected, it is mangled and defective. Consider, for a moment, how the public would have reacted to the popular iPod had it been accompanied with a brochure explaining what you can and can not do with songs from iTunes. Imagine this brochure was, by law, required to be visible and accessible to the public BEFORE they made such purposes.
To begin, it is useful to remember that all iPods play music that is free of any DRM and encoded in “open” licensable formats such as MP3 and AAC.
Firstly, I am a member of the Free Software community. They say a write must always remember his audience. Giving the source, or specifications to a bit of software is not enough. You must give the FREEDOM to use that source as well.
Secondly, MP3 is not even "open" format. It is restricted just as much as the Apple or Zune DRM schemes. If it's as open as you say, please point me in the direction to a source download of an MP3 encoder that is legal inside the US. There is not one. Like I said, source code and being "open" is not enough. You must also give the Freedom to use it. Patent law in the US prohibits anyone from using the MP3 format without a "Thompson" license, just as your DRM schemes prohibit iTunes songs elsewhere. The same goes for the AAC format, which is merely a container for another patented and RESTRICTED audio format.
If you are sincere about "openness", why not mention Ogg or FLAC, both are availible as Free software, and in addition to liberty, is also free (gratis)?
Music on CDs can be easily imported into the freely-downloadable iTunes jukebox software which runs on both Macs and Windows PCs [..]
I point everyone to The Free Software Definition when they mention that software is free. Those are the binary executables, for Window and Mac, but where is the source code? "Access to the source is a precondition". iTunes is not Free, it's cheap. Furthermore, Apple sells a hardware device. A device which, incidentally, is USB Mass Storage compliant. This means that it will function on ANY computer that can read a standard USB device, such as a hard drive or the iPod. This means GNU/Linux, FreeBSD (from which OS X is derived), GNU/Solaris, BeOS (et cetera) have little problem connecting to, and displaying content on this device. Where are the "freely" available downloads for these operating systems? Where, even, are Apple's links to software for these platforms that can provide the functionality that you deprived the iPod owners of?
encoded into the open AAC or MP3 formats without any DRM. This music can be played on iPods or any other music players that play these open formats.
It is not mentioned here that this is illegal in some nations (such as the United States, which Apple is headquartered in) because of laws lobbied for by the RIAA and MPAA, and passed without consent of the democratic public. The same companies, in fact, that "requested" DRM be incorporated into the iPod in the first place, as Mr. Jobs later states himself.
The solution was to create a DRM system, which envelopes each song purchased from the iTunes store in special and secret software so that it cannot be played on unauthorized devices.
Can you honestly speak that sentence without feeling chilled to the core? I can not read it without. "Secrets" do not belong in software. Doing so deprives users the right to retain control of their OWN PROPERTY. If Ford or GM put in place systems designed to make it impossible for drivers to see, for instance, the type of coolant in their radiator, they would be rejected by the automotive community faster than they could produce such cars. The ONLY reason such things haven't happened YET in the software world is because the general populace is being lied to and kept innocent of the "secret". I paraphrase a top Disney executive who said "If customers realize there is DRM, we've already lost.". Please be mindful of the Pixar/Apple/Disney connection...
Secondly, who determines weither a device is authorized? If your answer was anything other than "The owner of that device" you're dead wrong. If I buy a CD, it better damn well play in a CD player I build myself, else it's defective. I ask you, can iTunes do that when DRM is in place? Then what does that make an Apple product??? Defective!a key provision of our agreements with the music companies is that if our DRM system is compromised and their music becomes playable on unauthorized devices, we have only a small number of weeks to fix the problem or they can withdraw their entire music catalog from our iTunes store.
It must suck salty donkey testicles to feel so powerless to a monopolistic regime, doesn't it? The users feel it even worse!
To prevent illegal copies, DRM systems must allow only authorized devices to play the protected music.
False! To prevent illegal copies, the device must know the intent of the person making the copy, and know that that intent will never EVER change. And as far as I know, the product is the iPod, not iGod.
If a copy of a DRM protected song is posted on the Internet, it should not be able to play on a downloader’s computer or portable music device.
Another customer-squashing falsehood. With the use of public-private key encryption it is possible to post files online, even mass distribute them, and ensure that ONLY the people that content is intended for are able to use them. To prove the point, here is an encrypted file with a polite message to Mr. Jobs, should he be able to access it.
This kind of protection, limited to the customer, not the device, is perhaps as close to the only form of "DRM" I might find acceptible. However, there is one problem. Like ALL property I own, there will come a point where I may wish to transfer ownership of this property. Even THIS can't grant that right, and as such, is flawed to the point of being unusable.
In other words, even if one uses the most sophisticated cryptographic locks to protect the actual music, one must still “hide” the keys which unlock the music on the user’s computer or portable music player.
Interesting you should use this arguement. :) I personally posed a VERY similar question to Richard Stallman himself on this... "At what point" I asked, "does the pursuit of privacy cross the line into DRM? Is it the intent of the distributor, or the technology that is employed, or somehting else?" I suppose I was wondering if it's inherently evil for me to provide a computer to someone, but never give them the password. His answer was simple. So simple in fact, that I didn't think it could be real. Geeze, how stupid I was then. His reply was, and I quote "Freedom is control over your own life. Power is control over other people's lives. Privacy protection is the former, while DRM is the latter. " Thank you RMS!
The "Big Four" record companies Mr. Jobs refered to were distributing content. At the point they give that product to the customer, they loose control over it. The same way, in fact, that Smith & Wesson looses control over IT'S products when in the hands of the customer. The same way GM and Ford and McDonald's and every other company, craftsman and product producer on the planet has for time immemorial. If they wished to control how it was used by PAYING customers, they should not have sold it. That's a very simple tenant of property ownership. Putting a password on your own content, that's control. Putting a password on someone ELSE'S property is restriction. Put this in perspective; without a warrant the police can not seize your home, or your car, or your cell phone. Why then, is it legal to allow a corporation to seize control of property you legally and rightfully purchased? I don't know, but I speak strongly when I say it is immoral.
No one has ever implemented a DRM system that does not depend on such secrets for its operation.
Exactly. DRM is intended to restrict, not protect. Secrets allow restriction, not protection.
The problem, of course, is that there are many smart people in the world, some with a lot of time on their hands, who love to discover such secrets and publish a way for everyone to get free (and stolen) music.
Firstly, when you consider "many smart people" to be a "problem", you've got a very skewed idea of humanity. What does that say about your customers? "Many" of which own iPods? Do you cater to the non-problem idiots? Or are your smart customers "problems"?
Before and during the American Civil War there were a lot of people with "a lot of time on their hands". Most of them were fighting for Freedom, to liberate black American slaves. They fought for Freedom. It takes a lot of time, people opposing freedom often have a lot of resources. Even at that time, they were seen as "radicals" to bring down "the system" and destroy the economy. Interesting parallels, really.
Granted, there are SOME people who will bypass the DRM to take advantage of that copywritten content, but those people are a very small minority, and compared to the loss of customers because of the choice to restrict Freedom, they do little damage.
I state here and now, so nobody can ever say people do nothing... I do not own an iPod, and despite my wife's wishes to get one, I will not spend my money on it. There, that's one customer, and living proof that DRM has cost you business.
we have given users the most liberal usage rights available in the industry for legally downloaded music.
Unlimited access to content I paid for. Playable on any device I own. Without time limits (save natural, reversable degradation), without limit to number of times played, and fully transferable should I choose to do so. Anything shy of that is restrictive, not "liberal". Liberal would be unrestricted and gratis. Your idea of "liberal" is not good enough.
Music purchased from Microsoft’s Zune store will only play on Zune players; music purchased from Sony’s Connect store will only play on Sony’s players; and music purchased from Apple’s iTunes store will only play on iPods.
And all three companies continue to profit from this, while customers suffer. The kicker? All three companies could capitalize on the competitors marketshare if ONLY the products were interoperable. Imagine, when a customer chooses YOUR business because of better quality, better selection or better service rather than because of what device they were given for Christmas.
[...] customers are being well served with a continuing stream of innovative products and a wide variety of choices.
I disagree. Customers are being restricted because of the current state of the industry. When a customer looses the right of CHOICE in a free market economy, there is nothing WORSE. SHAME if you believe it works well.
Today’s most popular iPod holds 1000 songs, and research tells us that the average iPod is nearly full. This means that only 22 out of 1000 songs, or under 3% of the music on the average iPod, is purchased from the iTunes store and protected with a DRM. The remaining 97% of the music is unprotected and playable on any player that can play the open formats.
Reading between the lines, I extrapolate "The majority of music stored on iPods is not downloaded from industry approved methods, namely, iTunes." Let's be extremely generous and say that three-quarters of that non-iTunes content comes from local singers, or indie bands, or the enlightened artists who choose not to allow the recording industry to control their art. This content would all be legal, and freely distributable. The other 24.25 percent would have to be accounted for with music Mr. Jobs refered to above as "free (and stolen)".
Given these figures and your words... "Research tells us that the average iPod" contains more "stolen" music than "is purchased from the iTunes store [...]".
iPod users are clearly not locked into the iTunes store to acquire their music.
With all of those figures, you failed to explain how much music on iPods is from Apple's competitors, such as Microsoft's or Sony's respective music stores.
The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. [...] This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat.
Finally, something I can't shoot down.
we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.
Just a hypothetical, in the event that this ever happens. Will these restriction free iTunes then be able to remove or disable to DRM on songs already purchased?
Perhaps those unhappy with the current situation should redirect their energies towards persuading the music companies to sell their music DRM-free. [...] Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace. Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly.
There are a LOT of people who oppose DRM. Perhaps visit Defective By Design. To see a more glaring impact of those of us resisting, have a quick look at an Amazon.com listing for the iPod. Notice that at the time of writing this item was tagged 33 times as "Defective By Design". It should alarm Apple that the most popular consumer electronic device of the millenium (for now, let's give the iPod props for sales. ) is identified not by it's features, but it's limitations.
WAKE UP APPLE. There are potential customers that will not buy your product because of DRM.
Steve Jobs challenged the populace to lobby the Music Industry and demand that they remove the chains of Digital Rights Mutilation. Now, I challenge Apple.
If protecting user Freedom is important to you, and (as Steve Jobs said himself) providing the best situation for customers, refuse to do business with companies using DRM.
This might seem stupid business sense at first glance, but one you realize the impact of iTunes, you'll see how crucial you are. EMI (one of the big four) has already begin limited DRM unencumbered songs. Refuse to do business with them until they go all the way. With EMI out of iTunes, they'll listen. Like Apple, they do not want to loose out on a booming industry. The same stands for BMG, Sony and Universal as well.
Once Apple refuses to push DRM, the industry will respond. We'll then be a huge step closer to the utopia that Steve mentioned. Customers will be served better.
Maybe then, Apple will be able to sleep with itself at night.
-Kevin Dean
The article can be found here for those who are interested.
Text in italics are quotes from the letter.
With the stunning global success of Apple’s iPod music player and iTunes online music store, some have called for Apple to “open” the digital rights management (DRM) system that Apple uses to protect its music against theft, so that music purchased from iTunes can be played on digital devices purchased from other companies, and protected music purchased from other online music stores can play on iPods.
Steve, this isn't something that is new, or even off the wall. A product that can NOT do this is not protected, it is mangled and defective. Consider, for a moment, how the public would have reacted to the popular iPod had it been accompanied with a brochure explaining what you can and can not do with songs from iTunes. Imagine this brochure was, by law, required to be visible and accessible to the public BEFORE they made such purposes.
To begin, it is useful to remember that all iPods play music that is free of any DRM and encoded in “open” licensable formats such as MP3 and AAC.
Firstly, I am a member of the Free Software community. They say a write must always remember his audience. Giving the source, or specifications to a bit of software is not enough. You must give the FREEDOM to use that source as well.
Secondly, MP3 is not even "open" format. It is restricted just as much as the Apple or Zune DRM schemes. If it's as open as you say, please point me in the direction to a source download of an MP3 encoder that is legal inside the US. There is not one. Like I said, source code and being "open" is not enough. You must also give the Freedom to use it. Patent law in the US prohibits anyone from using the MP3 format without a "Thompson" license, just as your DRM schemes prohibit iTunes songs elsewhere. The same goes for the AAC format, which is merely a container for another patented and RESTRICTED audio format.
If you are sincere about "openness", why not mention Ogg or FLAC, both are availible as Free software, and in addition to liberty, is also free (gratis)?
Music on CDs can be easily imported into the freely-downloadable iTunes jukebox software which runs on both Macs and Windows PCs [..]
I point everyone to The Free Software Definition when they mention that software is free. Those are the binary executables, for Window and Mac, but where is the source code? "Access to the source is a precondition". iTunes is not Free, it's cheap. Furthermore, Apple sells a hardware device. A device which, incidentally, is USB Mass Storage compliant. This means that it will function on ANY computer that can read a standard USB device, such as a hard drive or the iPod. This means GNU/Linux, FreeBSD (from which OS X is derived), GNU/Solaris, BeOS (et cetera) have little problem connecting to, and displaying content on this device. Where are the "freely" available downloads for these operating systems? Where, even, are Apple's links to software for these platforms that can provide the functionality that you deprived the iPod owners of?
encoded into the open AAC or MP3 formats without any DRM. This music can be played on iPods or any other music players that play these open formats.
It is not mentioned here that this is illegal in some nations (such as the United States, which Apple is headquartered in) because of laws lobbied for by the RIAA and MPAA, and passed without consent of the democratic public. The same companies, in fact, that "requested" DRM be incorporated into the iPod in the first place, as Mr. Jobs later states himself.
The solution was to create a DRM system, which envelopes each song purchased from the iTunes store in special and secret software so that it cannot be played on unauthorized devices.
Can you honestly speak that sentence without feeling chilled to the core? I can not read it without. "Secrets" do not belong in software. Doing so deprives users the right to retain control of their OWN PROPERTY. If Ford or GM put in place systems designed to make it impossible for drivers to see, for instance, the type of coolant in their radiator, they would be rejected by the automotive community faster than they could produce such cars. The ONLY reason such things haven't happened YET in the software world is because the general populace is being lied to and kept innocent of the "secret". I paraphrase a top Disney executive who said "If customers realize there is DRM, we've already lost.". Please be mindful of the Pixar/Apple/Disney connection...
Secondly, who determines weither a device is authorized? If your answer was anything other than "The owner of that device" you're dead wrong. If I buy a CD, it better damn well play in a CD player I build myself, else it's defective. I ask you, can iTunes do that when DRM is in place? Then what does that make an Apple product??? Defective!a key provision of our agreements with the music companies is that if our DRM system is compromised and their music becomes playable on unauthorized devices, we have only a small number of weeks to fix the problem or they can withdraw their entire music catalog from our iTunes store.
It must suck salty donkey testicles to feel so powerless to a monopolistic regime, doesn't it? The users feel it even worse!
To prevent illegal copies, DRM systems must allow only authorized devices to play the protected music.
False! To prevent illegal copies, the device must know the intent of the person making the copy, and know that that intent will never EVER change. And as far as I know, the product is the iPod, not iGod.
If a copy of a DRM protected song is posted on the Internet, it should not be able to play on a downloader’s computer or portable music device.
Another customer-squashing falsehood. With the use of public-private key encryption it is possible to post files online, even mass distribute them, and ensure that ONLY the people that content is intended for are able to use them. To prove the point, here is an encrypted file with a polite message to Mr. Jobs, should he be able to access it.
This kind of protection, limited to the customer, not the device, is perhaps as close to the only form of "DRM" I might find acceptible. However, there is one problem. Like ALL property I own, there will come a point where I may wish to transfer ownership of this property. Even THIS can't grant that right, and as such, is flawed to the point of being unusable.
In other words, even if one uses the most sophisticated cryptographic locks to protect the actual music, one must still “hide” the keys which unlock the music on the user’s computer or portable music player.
Interesting you should use this arguement. :) I personally posed a VERY similar question to Richard Stallman himself on this... "At what point" I asked, "does the pursuit of privacy cross the line into DRM? Is it the intent of the distributor, or the technology that is employed, or somehting else?" I suppose I was wondering if it's inherently evil for me to provide a computer to someone, but never give them the password. His answer was simple. So simple in fact, that I didn't think it could be real. Geeze, how stupid I was then. His reply was, and I quote "Freedom is control over your own life. Power is control over other people's lives. Privacy protection is the former, while DRM is the latter. " Thank you RMS!
The "Big Four" record companies Mr. Jobs refered to were distributing content. At the point they give that product to the customer, they loose control over it. The same way, in fact, that Smith & Wesson looses control over IT'S products when in the hands of the customer. The same way GM and Ford and McDonald's and every other company, craftsman and product producer on the planet has for time immemorial. If they wished to control how it was used by PAYING customers, they should not have sold it. That's a very simple tenant of property ownership. Putting a password on your own content, that's control. Putting a password on someone ELSE'S property is restriction. Put this in perspective; without a warrant the police can not seize your home, or your car, or your cell phone. Why then, is it legal to allow a corporation to seize control of property you legally and rightfully purchased? I don't know, but I speak strongly when I say it is immoral.
No one has ever implemented a DRM system that does not depend on such secrets for its operation.
Exactly. DRM is intended to restrict, not protect. Secrets allow restriction, not protection.
The problem, of course, is that there are many smart people in the world, some with a lot of time on their hands, who love to discover such secrets and publish a way for everyone to get free (and stolen) music.
Firstly, when you consider "many smart people" to be a "problem", you've got a very skewed idea of humanity. What does that say about your customers? "Many" of which own iPods? Do you cater to the non-problem idiots? Or are your smart customers "problems"?
Before and during the American Civil War there were a lot of people with "a lot of time on their hands". Most of them were fighting for Freedom, to liberate black American slaves. They fought for Freedom. It takes a lot of time, people opposing freedom often have a lot of resources. Even at that time, they were seen as "radicals" to bring down "the system" and destroy the economy. Interesting parallels, really.
Granted, there are SOME people who will bypass the DRM to take advantage of that copywritten content, but those people are a very small minority, and compared to the loss of customers because of the choice to restrict Freedom, they do little damage.
I state here and now, so nobody can ever say people do nothing... I do not own an iPod, and despite my wife's wishes to get one, I will not spend my money on it. There, that's one customer, and living proof that DRM has cost you business.
we have given users the most liberal usage rights available in the industry for legally downloaded music.
Unlimited access to content I paid for. Playable on any device I own. Without time limits (save natural, reversable degradation), without limit to number of times played, and fully transferable should I choose to do so. Anything shy of that is restrictive, not "liberal". Liberal would be unrestricted and gratis. Your idea of "liberal" is not good enough.
Music purchased from Microsoft’s Zune store will only play on Zune players; music purchased from Sony’s Connect store will only play on Sony’s players; and music purchased from Apple’s iTunes store will only play on iPods.
And all three companies continue to profit from this, while customers suffer. The kicker? All three companies could capitalize on the competitors marketshare if ONLY the products were interoperable. Imagine, when a customer chooses YOUR business because of better quality, better selection or better service rather than because of what device they were given for Christmas.
[...] customers are being well served with a continuing stream of innovative products and a wide variety of choices.
I disagree. Customers are being restricted because of the current state of the industry. When a customer looses the right of CHOICE in a free market economy, there is nothing WORSE. SHAME if you believe it works well.
Today’s most popular iPod holds 1000 songs, and research tells us that the average iPod is nearly full. This means that only 22 out of 1000 songs, or under 3% of the music on the average iPod, is purchased from the iTunes store and protected with a DRM. The remaining 97% of the music is unprotected and playable on any player that can play the open formats.
Reading between the lines, I extrapolate "The majority of music stored on iPods is not downloaded from industry approved methods, namely, iTunes." Let's be extremely generous and say that three-quarters of that non-iTunes content comes from local singers, or indie bands, or the enlightened artists who choose not to allow the recording industry to control their art. This content would all be legal, and freely distributable. The other 24.25 percent would have to be accounted for with music Mr. Jobs refered to above as "free (and stolen)".
Given these figures and your words... "Research tells us that the average iPod" contains more "stolen" music than "is purchased from the iTunes store [...]".
iPod users are clearly not locked into the iTunes store to acquire their music.
With all of those figures, you failed to explain how much music on iPods is from Apple's competitors, such as Microsoft's or Sony's respective music stores.
The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. [...] This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat.
Finally, something I can't shoot down.
we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.
Just a hypothetical, in the event that this ever happens. Will these restriction free iTunes then be able to remove or disable to DRM on songs already purchased?
Perhaps those unhappy with the current situation should redirect their energies towards persuading the music companies to sell their music DRM-free. [...] Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace. Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly.
There are a LOT of people who oppose DRM. Perhaps visit Defective By Design. To see a more glaring impact of those of us resisting, have a quick look at an Amazon.com listing for the iPod. Notice that at the time of writing this item was tagged 33 times as "Defective By Design". It should alarm Apple that the most popular consumer electronic device of the millenium (for now, let's give the iPod props for sales. ) is identified not by it's features, but it's limitations.
WAKE UP APPLE. There are potential customers that will not buy your product because of DRM.
Steve Jobs challenged the populace to lobby the Music Industry and demand that they remove the chains of Digital Rights Mutilation. Now, I challenge Apple.
If protecting user Freedom is important to you, and (as Steve Jobs said himself) providing the best situation for customers, refuse to do business with companies using DRM.
This might seem stupid business sense at first glance, but one you realize the impact of iTunes, you'll see how crucial you are. EMI (one of the big four) has already begin limited DRM unencumbered songs. Refuse to do business with them until they go all the way. With EMI out of iTunes, they'll listen. Like Apple, they do not want to loose out on a booming industry. The same stands for BMG, Sony and Universal as well.
Once Apple refuses to push DRM, the industry will respond. We'll then be a huge step closer to the utopia that Steve mentioned. Customers will be served better.
Maybe then, Apple will be able to sleep with itself at night.
-Kevin Dean
YouTube - I Think They Missed The Point
I've been writing about my correspondence with YouTube in regards to the checks for the proprietary Flash and Sun Java plugins.
Last night, I got a message from YouTube, which I percieved as an attempt to close the ticket without actually doing anything, so I politely responded.
Hi there,
Thanks for your email.
Hope this helps,
Elizabeth
The YouTube Team
My responce was:
Hello.
I am not sure if I missed an attachment or if there was supposed to be a
link in that message. I'm as still unable to access YouTube video and
the Help Center did not offer any information.
- -Kevin Dean
Elizabeth responded to me today.
Hi there,
Thanks for your email, and sorry for the previous one.
Your free software should run YouTube content,but if it's not I need to know the following:
- A detailed description of what happened
- Operating System
- Browser (exact version)
- Which version of Flash you have installed (right-click the YouTube player to see which version)
- URL of the video you had trouble with
- The file name, size, and format of the video you are trying to upload
- How often you run into this problem
- What time of day you ran into this problem
I'm pretty sure my first message contained this information, didn't it? Well, maybe she doesn't have access to that original message, so I'll make sure that I provide it all again.
Thanks for the follow up.
Detailed description of what happened is below.
I load any YouTube page and am prompted with a "You must enable Flash
and JavaScript".
Operating System: GNU/Linux, Debian Etch 4.0, all updates installed.
Browser (exact version): IceWeasel version 2.0.0.1, revision dfsg-2.
It should be noted that this problem affects every browser on my
system including Konqueror, Epiphany and IceWeasel.
Which version of Flash you have installed: I use libflash 0.4.13-8 to
view Flash content.
URL of the video you had trouble with: N/A? This affects EVERY video on YouTube.
How often you run into this problem: EVERY time I visit a YouTube page.
What time of day you ran into this problem: This occurs at any time of day
-Kevin
I think they miss the point, lets see what her responce is. One more time, and I will escalate the request.
Last night, I got a message from YouTube, which I percieved as an attempt to close the ticket without actually doing anything, so I politely responded.
Hi there,
Thanks for your email.
Hope this helps,
Elizabeth
The YouTube Team
My responce was:
Hello.
I am not sure if I missed an attachment or if there was supposed to be a
link in that message. I'm as still unable to access YouTube video and
the Help Center did not offer any information.
- -Kevin Dean
Elizabeth responded to me today.
Hi there,
Thanks for your email, and sorry for the previous one.
Your free software should run YouTube content,but if it's not I need to know the following:
- A detailed description of what happened
- Operating System
- Browser (exact version)
- Which version of Flash you have installed (right-click the YouTube player to see which version)
- URL of the video you had trouble with
- The file name, size, and format of the video you are trying to upload
- How often you run into this problem
- What time of day you ran into this problem
I'm pretty sure my first message contained this information, didn't it? Well, maybe she doesn't have access to that original message, so I'll make sure that I provide it all again.
Thanks for the follow up.
Detailed description of what happened is below.
I load any YouTube page and am prompted with a "You must enable Flash
and JavaScript".
Operating System: GNU/Linux, Debian Etch 4.0, all updates installed.
Browser (exact version): IceWeasel version 2.0.0.1, revision dfsg-2.
It should be noted that this problem affects every browser on my
system including Konqueror, Epiphany and IceWeasel.
Which version of Flash you have installed: I use libflash 0.4.13-8 to
view Flash content.
URL of the video you had trouble with: N/A? This affects EVERY video on YouTube.
How often you run into this problem: EVERY time I visit a YouTube page.
What time of day you ran into this problem: This occurs at any time of day
-Kevin
I think they miss the point, lets see what her responce is. One more time, and I will escalate the request.
YouTube Responds. Sort of...
This morning (2 am Eastern) I received a reply from YouTube on the mandatory use of non-Free software.
Thank you again for emailing YouTube Support.
We just launched a new Help Center that has a ton of great new content.You
can get to it here
http://www.google.com/support/youtube
In an effort to have all of our customers questions answered as quickly as
possible, we'd like to ask that you take a look at the information there.
You should be able to find a solution right away! If you can't find an
answer in the Help Center please reply to this or send us a message from
there and we'll get to you as soon as we can.
Hope this helps,
The YouTube Team
So, hoping that since this Help Center is now located beneath the Google domain, it might actually contains some information for users of Free Software. I found nothing. So I clicked some of the links to maybe see if it used generic terms. No dice...
So here's my reply...
I visited the Help Center. A search for "Linux", "Free Software",
"Debian", "libflash" and "Software Libre" return nothing.
I followed several of the links in the "Video not working" section, and
did not find anything here that was not included on the site before, or
sent to me in the previous e-mail.
I was pleased to see that the YouTube Help Center is now hosted on the
Google domain. Google has had a long standing with the Free Software
community, providing freely usable code and API's. To see that YouTube
(and now, Google) are blatantly ignoring users of Free Software by
requiring restrictive software in order to access content created and
maintained through the sharing community is greatly disturbing.
I look forward to more information from you on how to access YouTube.
-Kevin Dean
Thank you again for emailing YouTube Support.
We just launched a new Help Center that has a ton of great new content.You
can get to it here
http://www.google.com/support/youtube
In an effort to have all of our customers questions answered as quickly as
possible, we'd like to ask that you take a look at the information there.
You should be able to find a solution right away! If you can't find an
answer in the Help Center please reply to this or send us a message from
there and we'll get to you as soon as we can.
Hope this helps,
The YouTube Team
So, hoping that since this Help Center is now located beneath the Google domain, it might actually contains some information for users of Free Software. I found nothing. So I clicked some of the links to maybe see if it used generic terms. No dice...
So here's my reply...
I visited the Help Center. A search for "Linux", "Free Software",
"Debian", "libflash" and "Software Libre" return nothing.
I followed several of the links in the "Video not working" section, and
did not find anything here that was not included on the site before, or
sent to me in the previous e-mail.
I was pleased to see that the YouTube Help Center is now hosted on the
Google domain. Google has had a long standing with the Free Software
community, providing freely usable code and API's. To see that YouTube
(and now, Google) are blatantly ignoring users of Free Software by
requiring restrictive software in order to access content created and
maintained through the sharing community is greatly disturbing.
I look forward to more information from you on how to access YouTube.
-Kevin Dean
"Open Source" vs. Free Software - GPL v3
I'm sitting here waiting for my download of GNU/Solaris to finish, and suddenly I remembered the hours I spent yesterday reading the second draft of the GNU General Public License, Version 3 and more specifically, the comments.
I won't phrase anyone here, because I'm not singling anyone or any specific comment out, but it seems very obvious to me that people commenting on some aspects of this license fall firmly into the "Open Source" camp, and NOT the Free Software philosophy.
Terms like "adoption" make a false and dangerous assumption; namely "We want people to use our code more than we want out code to be Free." If Freedom is less important to you, do not use the GPL v3. It became crystal clear to me last night what the intent of the FSF is with this reworking; "Make a CLEAR distinction between Open Source and Free Software."
This goal will be met by creating a license that, more than providing access to source code, ensures that given that code, users will still be able to have fully functioning, unencumbered software. DRM, while it might be disturbing to users of Open Source software, is "really a matter of choice. If vendors want to use it, that's their choice." That last phrase spits in the face of the ideals of Free Software; if you're not willing to license your code in a way to prevent it being perverted by DRM, then you are not writing software intent to be Free.
GPL v3 will seperate the "FOSS" community firmly in two. Those that want access to the code (and will use the GPL v2, the BSD and MPL license) and those who want their software to be Free, which requires access to the code, but doesn't stop there.
I won't phrase anyone here, because I'm not singling anyone or any specific comment out, but it seems very obvious to me that people commenting on some aspects of this license fall firmly into the "Open Source" camp, and NOT the Free Software philosophy.
Terms like "adoption" make a false and dangerous assumption; namely "We want people to use our code more than we want out code to be Free." If Freedom is less important to you, do not use the GPL v3. It became crystal clear to me last night what the intent of the FSF is with this reworking; "Make a CLEAR distinction between Open Source and Free Software."
This goal will be met by creating a license that, more than providing access to source code, ensures that given that code, users will still be able to have fully functioning, unencumbered software. DRM, while it might be disturbing to users of Open Source software, is "really a matter of choice. If vendors want to use it, that's their choice." That last phrase spits in the face of the ideals of Free Software; if you're not willing to license your code in a way to prevent it being perverted by DRM, then you are not writing software intent to be Free.
GPL v3 will seperate the "FOSS" community firmly in two. Those that want access to the code (and will use the GPL v2, the BSD and MPL license) and those who want their software to be Free, which requires access to the code, but doesn't stop there.
It's Not About Price
I've used GNU/Linux for the past several years. The first distro I used was Debian Sarge, and it was a last ditch effort to push a bit of life into the ailling computer I had, ironically enough, called Penguin.
Loaded with Windows XP Home edition, and horribly undercooled, I had to remove the laptop from it's casing and mount it to the coffee table to make it even get past the boot screen, and that only because of the two fans (non-computer) I placed behind it. Don't believe me? Check it out (link currently disabled).
I recognize this was a hardware issue, and not primarily a software one; however, increased load creates more heat and there is no doubt that a Windows system uses more resources.
I didn't install GNU/Linux my first time because it cost nothing.
That first install was a pain in the ass. I was uncomfortable with the curses installer, fearing that it would indicate what my GNU/Linux world would look like.
Luckily, I was dead wrong. I'd gone from a world of crusty Luna interfaces to a fresh, minimal but clean Gnome interface. That it was so different was as interesting as the fact that it had booted at all. But naturally, I hit some issues. Without reading the fucking manual :) I had no clue what was happening, and I couldn't wrap my mind around the idea of not clicking to install programs. So, I fired up XChat for the first time, connected to this Freenode thing and was well on my way to being told RTFM. In truth, it wasn't so bad. In fact, it was awesome. There was this community, not just a group of people but a community, so passionate about their computers and what they ran that they'd hack at the code to make something work, and work well. People so passiona
Loaded with Windows XP Home edition, and horribly undercooled, I had to remove the laptop from it's casing and mount it to the coffee table to make it even get past the boot screen, and that only because of the two fans (non-computer) I placed behind it. Don't believe me? Check it out (link currently disabled).
I recognize this was a hardware issue, and not primarily a software one; however, increased load creates more heat and there is no doubt that a Windows system uses more resources.
I didn't install GNU/Linux my first time because it cost nothing.
That first install was a pain in the ass. I was uncomfortable with the curses installer, fearing that it would indicate what my GNU/Linux world would look like.
Luckily, I was dead wrong. I'd gone from a world of crusty Luna interfaces to a fresh, minimal but clean Gnome interface. That it was so different was as interesting as the fact that it had booted at all. But naturally, I hit some issues. Without reading the fucking manual :) I had no clue what was happening, and I couldn't wrap my mind around the idea of not clicking to install programs. So, I fired up XChat for the first time, connected to this Freenode thing and was well on my way to being told RTFM. In truth, it wasn't so bad. In fact, it was awesome. There was this community, not just a group of people but a community, so passionate about their computers and what they ran that they'd hack at the code to make something work, and work well. People so passiona