- GNU and FSF News for October 2007
There's a new GNU PDF Project in the works to support the upcoming ISO
standard PDF implementation and they need your help. The FSF Europe has
posted a new RMS video. Conversion of software to the new GPLv3 license
continues at a steady pace. The SFLC files a history-making legal
complaint against a GPLv2 violator and resolves a GPLv2 dispute between
the BSD and Linux communities. Unofficial Gnash Flash binaries for
Windows are available. GNU Hurd gets IPv6 support and a new pfinet
maintainer. RMS will be speaking Columbia, Costa Rica, Japan, and the US
this month. Oh, and did I mention that new and improved versions of
GNOME and
GTK+ have been released.?
Mon, 8 Oct 2007 23:55:58 GMT
- On the proper use of assert
Oh humble assert, how much confusion have you caused! This might seem
like a banal topic and hardly "master" material, but I continually see
people get this wrong, so perhaps an article on this topic is
worthwhile.
Wed, 3 Oct 2007 15:02:39 GMT
- The Real Reason Why Linux Isn't On The Desktop
A recent article has surfaced discussing what the author thinks are reasons Linux won't succeed on the desktop. It is his mentality,
and not his reasons, which are the real culprits.
Wed, 19 Sep 2007 16:18:32 GMT
- Call for ISPs to Block Malware-Infected Computers
This is a call to ISPs to block Internet-connected computers within
their vicinity, which are infected with
malware,
especially, one that has turned the computer into
a zombie
machine, that is used to attack, spam or compromise other
machines.
Mon, 17 Sep 2007 19:11:08 GMT
- Wikipedia-based Open-Source Artificial Intelligence
Abstract: Wikipedia has grown so large that it may serve first as the
referential background for open-source artificial intelligence (AI) and
then as food for thought when the emerging AI Minds try to know and
understand the world around them.
Tue, 11 Sep 2007 09:09:35 GMT
- GNU and FSF News for September 2007
Lots of news this month! The FSF foundation joined other groups in
making a political statement about proprietary software. We've got a
report and new photos of the Defective by Design protest of the BBC.
GPLv3 adoption continues. GNU Grub was spotted in a Marvel comic book. A
new and improved alpha version of Gnash is out. RMS makes a
whirlwind tour of California. Read all about it in this month's edition
along with updates on major GNU packages like GNOME and gcc. There's
even some news on the Hurd this month.
Thu, 6 Sep 2007 23:15:52 GMT
- Thoughts on the Social Graph
My thoughts on the Social Graph, and opening it up...
Mon, 3 Sep 2007 23:22:35 GMT
- Proposed Merger of NLR and Internet 2
The Network Planning Team (NPT) was established in March 2007 in support
of a proposed merger of Internet2 and National LambdaRail, Inc.(NLR)
Mr. Gordon Cook stated Why
the proposed merger MUST not happen
"the merger as currently
proposed in my opinion would be a disaster that
would kill the crown jewel of Network infrastructure in the United
States. "
Sat, 1 Sep 2007 23:46:24 GMT
- Understanding the ICMP protocol
On my intranet, between 'trusted' Linux hosts, sit
switches/routers/firewalls. I am
having the hardest time to persuade our info sec dept. to allow ICMP
protocol
packets to go between our servers. These servers are master server/
device server/
client server of an Enterprise distributed backup to ADIC tape library
application with media management layer to Oracle RMAN interface.
Wed, 29 Aug 2007 03:01:18 GMT
- Is BitTorrent Evil?
Never mind copyright abuse, porn, and corporate co-optation. Just looking
at usage of the global set of point-to-point links ("tubes" per Sen.
Stevens), BitTorrent and similar protocols draw down the available
network capacity many times more than necessary to move files or
frames from the machines that have them to the machines that want them.
What can we do instead?
Fri, 10 Aug 2007 04:21:25 GMT
- One Sentence Answers for Free Software
etbe asks Two Questions
for All Serious Free Software Contributors:
1. What do you think is the most important single sentence of advice
that you can offer to someone who wants to contribute to the free
software community?
and
2. If you had the opportunity to say one sentence to someone who knows
about computers and free software (EG they have used both Linux and
Windows and done a small amount of programming) to convince them that
they should join the free software team, what would it be?
Wed, 8 Aug 2007 19:38:47 GMT
- GNU and FSF News for August 2007
It was a slow month for GNU/FSF news but even during a slow month
there's plenty to tell you about. The adoption of the GPLv3 continues,
over 300 packages are now using it. The 2007 Trophées du
Libre awards are coming up soon. The FSF Europe published a new
issue of their newsletter, full of interesting free software news from
Europe. There was a minor GCC release, and the last
new GCC release under the GPLv2 license. RMS will be in Peru this month,
giving talks at several schools and conferences. Read on for all the
details.
Mon, 6 Aug 2007 22:43:28 GMT
- Advogato's 2nd trust metric works... for now
Three weeks ago, etbe (Russell Cocker) suddenly started pumping hateful
leftist propaganda into Advogato. Since then,
the metric reports for few nodes to which I am connected shows a
precipitous decline, below the level of 3 in fact. This proves that
Advogato works as designed at least to stop small scale attacks.
Thu, 19 Jul 2007 21:11:06 GMT
- GNU and FSF News for July 2007
The GPL version 3 is out. Is anyone using it yet? Freshmeat says yes.
Will it transform the software industry? Eben Moglen says yes.
Will it change the Novell-Microsoft deal? Microsoft says no, then
announces changes in the same press release. Is Microsoft's goal to
start a Linux civil war? EWeek says Maybe.
Read all about it in this week's installment of GNU and FSF news. As always,
you can also find
out where RMS is speaking this month and read the latest news on other GNU
projects including GCC and GNOME.
Fri, 6 Jul 2007 16:03:42 GMT
- Pandora's Technology Box
Technology rules our first-world lives. The fears of a return to
dark-ages that
was predicted and worried about in the nineties has only become more of
a risk,
as ever more dependence on technology expands. First-world economies
and societies,
run by consumerism and led by corporations, are simply not aware of -
let alone
taking into account - just how much damage Information Technology does
to people,
nor are they considering the consequences of that damage, or their
reliance on
the people who are being made so ill.
So this article's purpose is to draw attention to the enormous
responsibility
being placed at the feet of IT specialists - both programmers and
maintainers -
whilst at the same time pointing out that those very same IT specialists
are under
absolutely crippling psychological and physical pressure, as a direct
result of
working with IT systems. The question has now been asked: what do we do
about this?
(article first published as TechnoHealth by lkcl)
Tue, 26 Jun 2007 12:56:10 GMT