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Shlomi Fish | 15 Dec 08:00
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Fw: [Foundation-l] How SOPA will hurt the free web and Wikipedia


Begin forwarded message:

Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:48:18 -0800
From: Jay Walsh <jwalsh <at> wikimedia.org>
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List <foundation-l <at> lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: [Foundation-l] How SOPA will hurt the free web and Wikipedia

Today the Wikimedia Foundation posted an important update on how the Stop
Online Piracy Act (SOPA) legislation being considered in DC this week
threatens an open and free web, and particularly how it threatens Wikipedia.

The post is authored by WMF's General Counsel, Geoff Brigham, and can be
found here:
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/12/13/how-sopa-will-hurt-the-free-web-and-wikipedia/

We encourage everyone to broadly share this information among our volunteer
community, throughout your networks, and wherever an audience passionate
about protecting the free and open web can be found.

Thanks,

--

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Jay Walsh
Head of Communications
WikimediaFoundation.org
blog.wikimedia.org
+1 (415) 839 6885 x 6609, @jansonw
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Eugen Leitl | 22 Nov 18:32

evolution of a modern software network


http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/11/14/1115960108

Evolution of a modular software network

Miguel A. Fortunaa,b, Juan A. Bonachelaa, and Simon A. Levina,1

aDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University,
Princeton, NJ 08544-1003; bIntegrative Ecology Group, Estación Biológica de
Doñana–Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, 41092 Seville, Spain

Contributed by Simon A. Levin, September 30, 2011 (sent for review June 30,
2011)

Abstract

“Evolution behaves like a tinkerer” (François Jacob, Science, 1977). Software
systems provide a singular opportunity to understand biological processes
using concepts from network theory. The Debian GNU/Linux operating system
allows us to explore the evolution of a complex network in a unique way. The
modular design detected during its growth is based on the reuse of existing
code in order to minimize costs during programming. The increase of
modularity experienced by the system over time has not counterbalanced the
increase in incompatibilities between software packages within modules. This
negative effect is far from being a failure of design. A random process of
package installation shows that the higher the modularity, the larger the
fraction of packages working properly in a local computer. The decrease in
the relative number of conflicts between packages from different modules
avoids a failure in the functionality of one package spreading throughout the
entire system. Some potential analogies with the evolutionary and ecological
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Eugen Leitl | 29 Oct 14:40

Re: [Freedombox-discuss] [Arm-netbook] Debian GNU/Linux on tablet hardware

----- Forwarded message from Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton <luke.leighton <at> gmail.com> -----

From: Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton <luke.leighton <at> gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2011 03:53:53 +0100
To: Linux on small ARM machines <arm-netbook <at> lists.phcomp.co.uk>,
	freedombox list <freedombox-discuss <at> lists.alioth.debian.org>
Subject: Re: [Freedombox-discuss] [Arm-netbook] Debian GNU/Linux on tablet
	hardware

On Sat, Oct 29, 2011 at 1:47 AM, Mark Constable <markc <at> renta.net> wrote:
> On 2011-10-28 07:50 PM, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
>> ...
>> it's an insane situation - i'm offering Free Software Developers
>> a "way out" of this insanity.
>
> Excellent disclosure of the reality of dealing with Chinese
> manufaturers. So you are suggesting the main problem is matching
> up an OS with the hardware, not the hardware itself.

 nggggggh YES, finally, someone gets it.  [i've done
reverse-engineering of 7 different ARM-based devices.  you do not want
to go there].

> A few months ago I made a plea for a non-netbook tablet solution
> to allow those keen to develop OS options a chance of getting
> something ready NOW while we wait for the "ideal" form factor
> parts to fall into place. Unfortunately the core point of that
> email, "give us something to develop on now", got buried under
> an assertion that any device won't end up in the hands of GPL
> tolerant western developers much under $300 retail/delivered.
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Don Marti | 26 Oct 03:54

Lenovo sales rep to nude laptop buyer: "No problem"

From the "look what the RSS aggremangler dragged in"
department...

  "I explained to the person on the other end that
  I wanted this particular laptop but that I did not
  wish to have *any* software, including an operating
  system, installed on the system.  I didn’t want
  to pay the Windows tax and knew that whatever they
  put on the computer wouldn’t last five minutes
  after the laptop was removed from the box.  To my
  surprise I wasn’t questioned or given a hard time
  about my choice.  I was simply told that that was
  “no problem”.  Once the agent had my hardware
  in his system and all my information he completed
  my order, emailed me all my necessary paperwork,
  and I ended up saving around $250."

  https://sparkslinux.wordpress.com/2011/10/22/review-of-the-lenovo-thinkpad-w520/

That's a lot of bread considering that the high end
for the estimated MSFT license price for a laptop is
$100--or am I doing my math wrong?

Anyway, interesting sighting.

--

-- 
Don Marti                    
http://zgp.org/~dmarti/
dmarti <at> zgp.org
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Don Saklad | 24 Oct 08:14
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Currently, who are the best programmers in the world?...

Currently, who are the best programmers in the world?...
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Shlomi Fish | 23 Oct 13:30
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FSF Campaign against Microsoft's Plan to Enforce "Secure Boot"

Hi all,

The Free Software Foundation started a campaign called “Stand up for your
freedom to install free software!” about Microsoft's plan to enforce “Secure
Boot” in the installations of Windows 8, which will prevent people from being
able to boot into GNU/Linux, one of the BSD variants, or other operating
systems. You can sign it here:

http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/secure-boot-vs-restricted-boot/statement

More information can be found at:

http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com/2011/10/fsf-campaign-against-secure-boot.html

Regards,

	Shlomi Fish

--

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Shlomi Fish       http://www.shlomifish.org/
Apple Inc. is Evil - http://www.shlomifish.org/open-source/anti/apple/

<ew73>  VB.NET is all of the fun of enforced privacy OO with all of the power
of BASIC.           — Freenode’s #perl

Please reply to list if it's a mailing list post - http://shlom.in/reply .
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Shlomi Fish | 14 Oct 08:35
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Dennis Ritchie Has Passed Away

Dennis Ritchie, known as the inventor of the C programming language, and
co-inventor of the original AT&T UNIX operating system has passed away recently:

* http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2011/10/dennis-ritchie/

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Ritchie

R. I. P.

Regards,

	Shlomi Fish

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Optimising Code for Speed - http://shlom.in/optimise

If Botticelli were alive today, he’d be working for Vogue.
    — http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Peter_Ustinov

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Rick Moen | 1 Sep 02:17
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PJ takes her victory lap


http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20110830170454743

  'It's that time. I wrote years ago I'd go to SCO's funeral in a red
  dress, and here we are.'
                            -- Pamela Jones (JPEG provided)

(Thank you, J.D. 'Illiad' Frazer.)

Droll tidbits include the revelation that Maureen O'Gara's company is
a SCO creditor.  Good luck with that, Maureen!

In other news, here.kernel.org was recently determined to be hax0red, and 
Jon C. kindly explained to journos why the sky remains determinedly unfallen.
https://www.linux.com/news/featured-blogs/171-jonathan-corbet/491001-the-cracking-of-kernelorg
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Shlomi Fish | 13 Jul 16:32
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RFC: Some Requests from the kernel.org Admins

Hi all,

I've written this open letter and placed it in the temporary location of
http://www.shlomifish.org/lkml-letter-f6y9/ , and intend to publish it as an
http://www.advogato.org/ editorial. However, I decided to send it here first in
case there is a way to resolve the issues at hand here first.

Any comments will be welcome.

Regards,

	Shlomi Fish

----------------

# Some Requests from the kernel.org Admins

## The requests:

This article is is intended to convey a few requests for the E-mail
administrators of [kernel.org](http://www.kernel.org/). First of all, I should
note that I hold them in high esteem for their hard-work in keeping the various
@kernel.org mailing lists (related to the Linux kernel, git and other projects)
spam and abuse free, proving to be very valuable resources in advancing these
important and quality open-source projects. They are doing an important work
which is often overlooked and invisible.

The requests are:

1. **Assign a developer to adopt my kernel-xconfig search enhancement patch** -
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Don Marti | 31 May 18:41

New Grandma and Grandpa computer: Telikin

Came across this in a SkyMall catalog:

  "Telikin is a simple and easy to use family
  computer that combines video chat, photo sharing,
  email and many more popular features into a sleek,
  touchscreen device."

  http://www.telikin.com/

Anyone tried one, or set one up for a family member?
One of the selling points is "Tech Buddy" remote
access.  The AARP web site says,

  "Keep the fun part of personal computing — the
  Web browsing, e-mail, calendar, photo sharing,
  games and video chat — and lose the complexity
  and virus risk."

  http://www.aarp.org/technology/innovations/info-01-2011/tops_in_tech.html

The video chat feature looks nifty, but can't see
from the web site if it's a rebranded version of one
of the Free ones, or interoperable.

--

-- 
Don Marti                    
http://zgp.org/~dmarti/
dmarti <at> zgp.org
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Shlomi Fish | 3 Mar 21:01
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Request for Comments: How to Deal with Internet Trolls - the Cognitive Therapy approach

Hi all,

I've recently started working on a document titled "How to deal with Internet 
Trolls - the Cognitive Therapy approach", which I'm posting here for review. 
It's not published yet on my blog (though it is intended to be published on 
http://unarmed.shlomifish.org/ eventually), but can be viewed in a temporary 
location (see below) and I'm posting it for review because you people tend to 
be very critical of what I and other people write, and I can learn a lot more 
from people like that[Remix] than from fans. Here's the XHTML:

http://www.shlomifish.org/trolls-cure-truk/dealing-with-trolls-summary.xhtml

There's also a bitbucket repository here:

https://bitbucket.org/shlomif/taming-trolls-and-flamers

<footnotes>
[Remix] - see what Lessig wrote about it in his Remix book, as I quoted here: 
http://xrl.us/biknkm .
</footnotes>

Two notes:

1. Super-executive summary: "On the Internet, don't be right - be smart."

2. "Don't feed the troll" is also a wrong approach.

I'm including the text below in MediaWiki format as converted from the XHTML 
by http://search.cpan.org/dist/HTML-WikiConverter-MediaWiki/ (so it may be 
formatted a little off). If you're interested in sending me patches or pull
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Gmane