1<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC 2 "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" 3 "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"> 4<html lang="en"> 5<head> 6 <link rel="shortcut icon" href="/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon"> 7 <link rel="stylesheet" href="ianstyles001.css" type="text/css"> 8 <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> 9 <meta name="Author" content="[email protected] (Ian! D. Allen)"> 10 <title>Ian! D. Allen - Personal Home Page</title> 11</head> 12 13<body> 14<table summary="Two-column page layout table"> 15<tbody> 16<tr> 17 <th class="topleftblock"> 18 <img alt="DR LINUX Ontario car license plate" 19 src="images/drlinux.jpg" height="78" width="116"> 20 </th> 21 <td class="toprightblock"> 22 <h1 style="float: left"> 23 Ian! D. Allen 24 25 <a href="http://www.gc.ca/main_e.html"><img src="canflag.png" alt="Canadian Flag" height="26" width="50"></a> 26 <br> 27 Personal Home Page</h1> 28 <span class="updated"> 29 Updated: 30 31 2023-11-16 23:17 EST 32 </span> 33 </td> 34</tr> 35<tr> 36 <td class="leftblock"> 37 <ul class="leftlist"> 38 <li class="leftbottom"> 39 <a href="resume/">Résumé</a> 40 </li> 41 <li class="leftbottom"> 42 <a href="teaching">Teaching</a> 43 </li> 44 <li class="leftbottom"> 45 <a href="http://contactimprov.ca/">Contact Improv</a> 46 </li> 47 <li class="leftbottom"> 48 <a href="http://someassemblyrequired.ca/">Theatre Improv</a> 49 </li> 50 <li class="leftbottom"> 51 <a href="http://www.facebook.com/people/Ian_D_Allen/122608521">Facebook</a> 52 </li> 53 <li class="leftbottom"> 54 <a href="ncf/">old Free-Net web</a> 55 </li> 56 <li class="leftbottom"> 57 <a href="sympatico/">old Sympatico web</a> 58 </li> 59 <li class="leftbottom"> 60 <a href="topposting.html">Top Posting</a> 61 </li> 62 <li class="leftbottom"> 63 <a href="command_line_vs_gui.txt">Command Line vs. 64 <acronym title="Graphical User Interface">GUI</acronym></a> 65 </li> 66 <li class="leftbottom"> 67 <a href="openformats.html">Open Formats (HTML)</a> 68 </li> 69 <li class="leftbottom"> 70 <a href="openformats.txt">Open Formats (text)</a> 71 </li> 72 <li class="leftbottom"> 73 <a href="ncf/english.html">Pronouncing English</a> 74 </li> 75 </ul> 76 <hr> 77 <span class="jumpdown">Jump down to:</span> 78 <ul class="jumpdownlist"> 79 <li class="jumpdownli"> 80 <a href="#contact">Contact Improv Dance</a> 81 </li> 82 <li class="jumpdownli"> 83 <a href="#desktop">Home Office Desktop</a> 84 </li> 85 <li class="jumpdownli"> 86 <a href="#snippets">Quotations and Snippets</a> 87 </li> 88 </ul> 89 </td> 90 91 <td class="rightblock"> 92 <img style="float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em; border-radius: 25%; border: 0.5em solid red;" src="images/ian_chertsey_2010.jpg" width="285" height="429" alt="Photo of Ian! D. Allen by Justin Burr"> 93 94 <h2>Places Lived</h2> 95 <div class="indent"> 96 <p>Hello, I'm Ian Allen, Ian D. Allen, and often Ian! Allen or Ian! 97 D. Allen too. (All those combinations are for the search engines.) 98 </p> 99 <p> 100 I was born in Ottawa [Canada] and have lived in Deep River 101 [Ontario], Pointe Claire [Quebec], St.Lucia [West Indies], Toronto 102 [Ontario], Hillsburgh (The Everdale Place School Community) [Ontario], 103 and Waterloo [Ontario]. 104 </p> 105 <p>I now live in Ottawa [Ontario] since 1992. 106 </p> 107 </div> 108 109<!-- Stack Echange, Mastodon, Tip Jar Block --> 110<div align="center" style="width: 40%; padding: 0.5em; margin: 0.5em ; border: 0.5em double green ; border-radius: 10%"> 111<p> 112<a href="http://stackexchange.com/users/2025988"> 113<img src="http://stackexchange.com/users/flair/2025988.png" width="208" height="58" alt="profile for Ian D. Allen on Stack Exchange, a network of free, community-driven Q&A sites" title="profile for Ian D. Allen on Stack Exchange, a network of free, community-driven Q&A sites"> 114</a> 115</p> 116<p> 117<a rel="me" href="https://mastodon.sdf.org/@idallen"> 118<img style="width: 50%" alt="Mastodon" src="images/mastodon-wordmark-black-text.svg"> 119</a> 120<br> 121<b><tt>@[email protected]</tt></b> 122</p> 123<p> 124IDAllen Tip Jar:
125<script type="application/javascript" src="https://liberapay.com/idallen/widgets/button.js"></script>
125 126<noscript><div><a href="https://liberapay.com/idallen/donate"><img alt="Donate using Liberapay" src="https://liberapay.com/assets/widgets/donate.svg"></a></div></noscript> 127</p> 128</div> 129 130 <h2>Teaching</h2> 131 <div class="indent"> 132 <p> 133 I was employed full-time as a Professor of Information and 134 Communications technologies (ICT) at 135 <a href="http://www.algonquincollege.com/">Algonquin College</a> 136 in Ottawa from December 1996 through June 2019. 137 I had to resign from teaching on June 30, 2019 because I was 138 being forced to teach night courses that conflicted with my 139 personal life. 140 </p> 141 <p>The web pages for my College teaching course notes are on both 142 <a href="http://teaching.idallen.com/"><strong>teaching.idallen.com</strong></a> 143 and 144 <a href="http://teaching.idallen.org/"><strong>teaching.idallen.org</strong></a>.</p> 145<!-- UNUSED 146 <p>I also maintain backup copies of my teaching web site. 147 Don't use <a href="backup.html">the backup site</a>. Use the above 148 links instead.</p> 149UNUSED --> 150 </div> 151 152<!-- UNUSED 153<h2>Search this Site (badly)</h2> 154<div class="indent"> 155 156This is a terrible search engine. It doesn't find short words or 157numbers. Use it if you find it useful. 158<p> 159<form action="/cgi-sys/entropysearch.cgi" target=searchwindow> 160Search Query <input type="text" name="query" value=""> 161<input type="hidden" name="user" value="idallen"> 162<input type="hidden" name="basehref" value="http://idallen.com"> 163<input type="hidden" name="template" value="default"> 164<input type="submit" value="Search"> 165</form> 166</p> 167</div> 168UNUSED --> 169 170<h2>Dance and Movement</h2> 171 <div class="indent"> 172<p> 173I'm a big fan of ecstatic dance, 5 Rhythms dance, and other barefoot boogies, 174<a href="#contact">contact improvisation dance</a>, 175and 176<a href="http://www.facebook.com/CreativeDanceandMovementOttawaGatineau">Creative Dance and Movement Events</a> in general. 177</p> 178<p> 179Poet TS Eliot reads from <a href="https://www.themarginalian.org/2015/11/18/t-s-eliot-reads-burnt-norton/"><i>Burnt Norton</i></a> (from "Four Quartets"). 180Excerpt: 181</p> 182<blockquote> 183 <pre> 184 At the still point of the turning world. 185 Neither flesh or fleshless; 186 Neither from nor towards; 187 at the still point, there the dance is, 188 But neither arrest nor movement. 189 And do not call it fixity, 190 Where past and future are gathered. 191 Neither movement from nor towards, 192 Neither ascent nor decline. 193 Except for the point, the still point, 194 There would be no dance, 195 and there is only the dance. 196 I can only say, there we have been: but I cannot say where. 197 And I cannot say, how long, for that is to place it in time. 198 </pre> 199</blockquote> 200 </div> 201 202<!-- UNUSED 203Here's a calendar of various Creative Dance and Movement Events in my world: 204<a href="http://sites.google.com/site/creativedanceottawa/">Creative Dance and Movement Events</a> in general. 205<iframe src="http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=rqohq0213uhhviv0gmkjlsc62k%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/New_York" style="border: 0" width="800" height="600" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe> 206UNUSED --> 207 208<h2>USENET Postings (back to 1981)</h2> 209<div class="indent"> 210<p>I've posted to Usenet News Groups since they first appeared at 211the University of Waterloo in the early 1980's. My userid 212<strong><tt>idallen</tt></strong> was unique on USENET up until 1995. The 213links below show you all my USENET postings and some other stuff (post 1995) 214that isn't me. 215</p> 216</div> 217<ul> 218<!-- 219<li><a href="http://groups.google.com/groups?as_oq=idallen&as_drrb=b&as_mind=1&as_minm=1&as_miny=1981&as_maxd=1&as_maxm=1&as_maxy=1995&as_scoring=d&filter=0"> 220idallen USENET postings 1981 - 1994</a>.</li> 221<li><a href="http://groups.google.com/groups?as_oq=%22idallen@cgl%22%20%22idallen@math%22%20%22idallen@idallen%22%20%22idallen@freenet%22&as_drrb=b&as_mind=1&as_minm=1&as_miny=1995&as_maxd=31&as_maxm=12&as_maxy=2008&as_scoring=d&filter=0"> 222<li><a href="http://groups.google.com/groups/search?q=idallen&qt_s=Search&as_drrb=b&as_mind=1&as_minm=1&as_miny=1981&as_maxd=1&as_maxm=1&as_maxy=1995"> 223idallen USENET postings 1981 - 1994</a>.</li> 224<li><a href="http://groups.google.com/groups/search?q=idallen@cgl+OR+idallen@idallen+OR+idallen@freenet+OR+idallen@ncf+OR+idallen@math&qt_s=Search&as_drrb=b&as_mind=1&as_minm=1&as_miny=1995&as_maxd=31&as_maxm=12&as_maxy=2008"> 225idallen USENET postings 1995 to present</a>.</li> 226-->
227<li><a href="http://groups.google.com/forum/#!search/idallen|sort:relevance"> 228idallen USENET postings 1981 - present</a>.</li> 229</ul> 230 231<h2>Links</h2> 232<ul> 233 <li>Contact Ian!: <a href="mailto:[email protected]?subject=from_idallen_web">[email protected]</a></li> 234 <li>Ian!s Resume: <a href="resume/">résumé</a></li> 235<li>Some of Ian!s <a href="oclug/">Unix/Linux talks</a></li> 236<li>Ottawa Contact Improvisation Dance has <a href="http://contactimprov.ca/on/ottawa/">drop-in class/jam nights</a>.</li> 237<li>Ottawa Theatre Improv drop-in workshops are at <a href="http://someassemblyrequired.ca/">SomeAssemblyRequired.ca</a>.</li> 238<li>My Ottawa FreeNet home page is closed; but, you can see what it <a href="ncf/">used to contain</a>.</li> 239<li>My Sympatico home page is closed; but, you can see what it <a href="sympatico/">used to contain</a>.</li> 240<li>Weather in Ottawa, CANADA: <a href="http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/city/pages/on-118_metric_e.html">official</a> 241and <a href="http://ottawa.weatherstats.ca/">summary</a></li> 242<li><a href="http://www.worldofends.com/">What the Internet Is and 243How to Stop Mistaking It for Something Else</a></li> 244<li><a href="http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/digital-imprimatur/">How big 245brother and big media can put the Internet genie back in the 246bottle</a></li> 247<li>The <a href="http://www.indiangeek.net/wp-content/uploads/Programmer%20competency%20matrix.htm">Programmer Competency Matrix</a> and an <a href="programmer_competency_matrix.html">Alternate (old) Copy</a> 248</li> 249<li><a href="http://xkcd.com/">XKCD - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language</a></li> 250<li><a href="fans.html">How NOT to use fans to cool a room</a></li> 251</ul> 252</td> 253</tr> 254</tbody> 255</table> 256 257<div><a name="contact"></a></div> 258<h2>Contact Improvisation Dance</h2> 259<div class="indent"> 260<p> 261 Discover and practice the science and playground that is 262<a href="http://contactimprov.ca/">Contact Improvisation</a>. 263 Strengthen your body, open your mind and awaken your 264 instincts. Explore sensory and physical experiments of shared touch, 265 weight, gravity and momentum and expand into three-dimensional space, 266 spontaneous composition, trust and risk. Engage in scores and open 267 dancing and experience serious play - matching wits and methods, 268 sharing common ground and sudden miracles - by surrendering to and 269 shaping the dance in the moment. Be ready for joint creations with 270 formal and open structures and games, scores and scenarios ranging from 271 the whimsical to poetic, cooperative to aggressive, simple to complex. 272 (Knee pads are recommended.) 273</p> 274</div> 275 276<div><a name="consensus"></a></div> 277<h2>Formal Consensus: Values-based Decision Making</h2> 278<div class="indent"> 279<ul> 280<li> 281<a href="http://www.consensus.net/">Values-based Consensus Home Page</a></li> 282<li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJMOx8KK_fM">OPN Interview with CT Butler, Author and Activist, on Values Based Decision Making</a> 283</li> 284</ul> 285</div> 286 287<div><a name="desktop"></a></div> 288<h2>Home Office Desktop</h2> 289<div class="indent"> 290<img alt="Ian!s office" width="400" height="300" src="images/desk_sml.jpg"> 291<p> 292This is where I work, at home. 293 294[<a href="images/desk_med.jpg">800x600 [229 KB]</a>] 295 296[<a href="images/desk_big.jpg">2815x2112 [2.5 MB]</a>} 297</p> 298<p> 299I'm a Unix/Linux system administrator ("sysadmin"). 300I'm a big fan of <a href="http://xkcd.com/"><em>xkcd.com</em></a> 301<br> 302<a href="http://xkcd.com/"> 303<img alt="Sysadmin Comic from XKCD" width="638" height="247" 304 src="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/devotion_to_duty.png"> 305</a> 306</p> 307</div> 308 309<div><a name="snippets"></a></div> 310<h2>Quotations and Snippets</h2> 311<div class="indent"> 312<p> 313 <b>Principles only mean something if you stick by them when they 314 are inconvenient.</b> -- "Laine Hanson" (played by Joan Allen) 315 from the movie "The Contender" 316</p> 317 318<p> 319"It takes two people to make a relationship difficult, but it 320takes only one person to make a relationship better." 321- Harville Hendrix - http://www.harvillehendrix.com/watch.html 322</p> 323 324<p> 325For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. 326-- H.L. Mencken 327</p> 328 329<p> 330"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary 331depends upon his not understanding it!" - Upton Sinclair (1935) 332</p> 333 334<p> 335"How can I tell you what I think until I've heard what I say?" 336</p> 337 338<p> 339The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to 340change; the realist adjusts the sails. - William Arthur Ward 341</p> 342 343<p> 344The reasonable man adapts himself to the conditions that surround him... 345The unreasonable man adapts surrounding conditions to himself... All 346progress depends on the unreasonable man. - George Bernard Shaw 347</p> 348 349<p> 350Issues with nuclear power are similar to GMO's. The problem isn't the 351science, but the inability of our governance structures to manage the 352complexities and the risks when mismanaged. After watching the C-11 353committee hearings my belief in the ability of our governments to make
354sane decisions about technology is even lower than it was before, and 355I've always been an opponent of nuclear power and GMO's for governance 356reasons. The lack of basic science and technology literacy in government 357is extreme: I think they believe Harry Potter was a documentary. 358- Russel McOrmond, http://www.digital-copyright.ca/node/5449 359</p> 360 361<p> 362The situation is quite likely urgent. We may be near a tipping point. 363In a complex system, the only way to identify a tipping point is from 364the other side. The only thing we know for certain is that the longer 365we wait the more likely we are to pass one. If we continue operating 366according to our sabre-tooth-tiger reflex, where we need to see the 367danger big, violent, and immediate, before we react, we may be doomed, 368because at that point in a complex system when the danger is big, 369violent, and immediate, probably no action would be sufficient. 370<br> 371-- Greg Craven (wonderingmind42) 372<br> 373<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twRbGD4zq0s">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twRbGD4zq0s</a> 374<!-- UNUSED 375<br> 376<a href="http://manpollo.org/">http://manpollo.org/</a> 377<br> 378<a href="http://gregcraven.org/">http://gregcraven.org/</a> 379UNUSED --> 380</p> 381 382<p> 383[On dismantling the national child care programme:] 384Giving a family money (tax credits) isn't the same as building social 385infrastructure. We improve roads; we don't give people tax credits to 386allow them to buy thicker and thicker tires. -Ian! 387</p> 388 389<p> 390"The main thing to understand about systemic racism is that trying 391to assign individual fault and guilt misses the point. Saying that a 392problem is systemic means that it doesnât reduce to good guys and bad 393guys. Something in the structure of institutions pits well-meaning people 394against each other, and thereâs no way to resolve the issue without 395hurting somebody. [...] That conflict is entirely artificial: [...] 396Things just wound up that way. And while we could go round and round 397about the intentions of the people who started it all, thatâs just 398a distraction, because theyâre dead. Weâre not a jury discussing 399their punishment; weâre heirs trying to sort out their legacy. [...] 400The point isnât to assess blame or demand that people feel guilty or 401apologize. The point is to make the injustice stop. Change the structure 402of things so that well-meaning people are no longer drafted into an 403artificial conflict." 404-- https://weeklysift.com/2021/07/26/the-cleveland-indians-guardians-a-teachable-moment/ 405</p> 406 407<p> 408What Charles Darwin taught us about human origins is fully accepted in the 409conveniently compartmentalised science of biology; but, the implications 410for human history, modern society, economics, etc. we are not facing up 411to: the fact that they are all deeply rooted in our primitive, animal 412nature, which is incapable of understanding or adapting to the need 413for limits, so vital for achieving sustainability on our finite and 414vulnerable planet. 415-- http://www.spaceship-earth.org/PoS/Plundering_of_a_planet.htm 416</p> 417 418<p> 419In the modern world it is perfectly normal for lots of people to make 420extensive use of a car and fly off on holiday once or twice a year. Our 421biological programming and social conditioning thus respond by telling 422us that it must be okay for us to do so as well. On the other hand, our 423recently acquired, more enlightened, human nature (e.g. our intellect, 424in its literal sense) tells us that what may be of little consequence 425for our planet when just a few (million) people do it, is likely to have 426catastrophic consequences if 100's or 1000's of millions of people do 427the same thing. 428 429In the past, playing safe for the best chances of survival, meant 430following the norm and doing what most other people did. But that has 431now changed. In the modern world, such behaviour has become a threat to 432our survival. 433-- http://www.spaceship-earth.org/PoS/Uncommon_sense.htm 434</p> 435 436<p> 437It is in the nature of living things to overrun their habitats unless 438checked, possession of a forebrain and opposable thumbs does not 439exempt humans from this. If anything it means that the "check" will 440come very late and harshly, and that our collective response will c
440ome 441too late when alternatives are few. 442-- Paul Vixie, 443http://fm.vix.com/terra/climate/iberian-drought-2005.html 444</p> 445 446<p> 447Technical workers are problem solvers; so, don't become a problem. 448If management policies or rules are perceived by technical workers 449as a hurdle to getting work done, they will come up with creative 450ways to work around the "management problem". 451-- Advice from eWeek to managers of technical staff in early 2006. 452</p> 453 454<p> 455It is less useful to think of the child is an immature adult than it 456is to think of the adult as an atrophied child - Keith Johnstone 457</p> 458 459<p> 460Being chronologically challenged, I have been in this game for too long, 461written too many briefs, and been on too many delegations to Ottawa to 462address various Commons committees to be sanguine about saying, "The 463poor dears need some more knowledge. If they only knew what I know, 464the world would be a better place to live." 465One begins most of these civic journeys with the idea that those in 466power are well-intentioned but ill-informed, and I am sorry to say 467that many of us ended up by saying that those in power are very 468well-informed but ill-intentioned. 469They (the politicians) have no intention of doing what I might 470consider the right and appropriate thing. 471-- Professor Emeritus Ursula Franklin, University of Toronto, 472quoted in CCPA Monitor, March 1997. 473http://wsp.bctf.ca/bctfnews/archive/1996-97/1997-06-18.html 474</p> 475 476<p> 477There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." 478-- Isaac Asimov 479http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/456687-there-is-a-cult-of-ignorance-in-the-united-states 480</p> 481 482<p> 483In the way that scepicism is sometimes applied to issues of public concern, there is a tendency to belittle, to condescend, to ignore the fact that, deluded or not, supporters of superstition and pseudoscience are human beings with real feelings, who, like sceptics, are trying to figure out how the world works and what our role in it might be. Their motives are in many cases consonant with science. If their culture has not given them all the tools they need to pursue this great quest, let us temper our criticism with kindness. None of us comes fully equipped. 484-- Carl Sagan http://metousiosis.com/2012/11/17/carl-sagan-quote-5/ 485</p> 486 487<p> 488The skillful ability to move is at the very core of what it is to be a 489conscious perceiving agent. [...] The capacity to move and the capacity 490to see are interwoven. [...] The world comes into focus as a kind of 491dynamic of trying to make sense of it. [...] The way I think about 492what human consciousness is, in a way, it's dance. 493-- Alva Noë 494<br> 495http://seedsfestival.ning.com/video/video/show?id=2217980%3AVideo%3A75 496</p> 497 498<p> 499From my ongoing inquiry into what's needed in order to cultivate clear 500boundaries, I've developed a workshop called "101 Ways to Say No to 501Contact Improvisation." The premise of the workshop is that until a 502person has the confidence and ability to say no to something, he or she 503won't have the trust and capacity to fully say yes to it. In the 504workshop, we explore physical and verbal skills to say no to dances, to 505touch, to being lifted, to weight exchange, to momentum, to manipulation. 506-- Martin Keogh, 507http://www.martinkeogh.com/resources/101WaystoSayNotoContactImprovisation.html 508</p> 509 510<p> 511[2m30s] "I wrote an internal appreciation about that computer [the 512Apple Lisa] in which I said this is a catastrophe. This is the end of 513language in relation to computers. This is the implementation of the 514"cave man" interface: you point, and you grunt. And if we reduce the 515interaction between human beings and computers to pointing and grunting, 516then we miss the role of language in the evolution of human mind and 517human consciousness. Language is what makes our brains bigger. If we 518don't use languages to relate to computers, neither their brains nor 519our brains will grow in the way that they are supposed to grow." 520--
520Eben Moglen, Free Software Foundation: www.fsf.org, 521http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKxzK9xtSXM 522</p> 523 524<p> 525Our future ability to communicate freely depends on keeping our 526words in public and open standard formats that are not controlled 527by who can afford to buy the licenses to read them. Do not send me 528any Microsoft Word documents; they are <a href="openformats.txt">too 529expensive</a> to read. -Ian! 530</p> 531 532<p> 533People think that stealing Microsoft software only hurts Microsoft; 534they're wrong. 535Alas, people aren't going to realize the proprietary bind they've gotten 536themselves into and switch to using free and open-source software until 537they stop stealing all that Microsoft software. -Ian! 538</p> 539 540<p> 541The difference between free and freedom: 542</p> 543<blockquote> 544<p> 545Whenever I hear people discussing GNU/Linux's prospects for becoming more 546popular, I'm reminded of a comment by Tommy Douglas, the social democrat 547who became a hero for introducing universal health care into Canada. If 548he could press a button and gain a million voters who did not understand 549his policies, he said, then he would not press that button. He meant that 550he was not in politics simply to be elected, but to gain supporters for 551his ideals -- and that he was determined not to lose sight of his long 552term goals while purs[u]ing short term ones. 553</p> 554<p> 555The comment resonates for me because, increasingly, in the rush for 556market share, many people seem to lose sight of the fact that the goal 557of GNU/Linux and free software is not popularity in itself, but the wide 558acceptance of a set of ideals. 559</p> 560<p> 561At its most basic, free software is about helping users gain control of 562their computers so that they can participate unhindered in the digital 563conversations of the networks and the Internet. It's about installing 564software freely, rather than being dictated to by the manufacturer. It's 565about using your computer the way that you want, instead of ceding control 566to lock-down devices installed by software vendors without permission 567on your machine. 568-- Bruce Byfield, 569http://www.datamation.com/osrc/article.php/3733286/GNULinux-World-Domination-for-the-Wrong-Reasons.htm 570</p> 571</blockquote> 572 573<p> 574Free and Open Source Software [FOSS] is about making good quality 575software, software that can *DO* 576things. If you want to use it, you're expected to invest time in 577learning how to use it. It was created and given to you, free of 578charge, by people who invested a lot of their own time in it for no 579personal gain. The least you could do to repay their contribution is 580invest a little time of your own before you complain that it doesn't 581work like the parallel Windows software. 582-- Dominic Humphries, http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm 583</p> 584 585<p> 586That's actually what's most exciting to me--that, because of the nature 587of these open-source projects, other people can learn from all of the 588things that we're learning here. 589 590In a commercial environment, you usually have proprietary software, it 591is closed source. People see the output, but they don't get to see the 592process. At Mozilla--let's say, Firefox--you can see both the output 593and all the steps that went into it. 594-- Window Snyder, 595http://news.com.com/2008-7355_3-6117896.html 596</p> 597 598<p> 599I think it's important to always carry enough technology to restart 600civilization, should it be necessary. 601-- Mark W. Tilden, 602http://www.you-review.net/features/interviews/mark-tilden/1/ 603</p> 604 605<p> 606One of the biggest changes in 607politics in my lifetime is that the delusional is no longer marginal. 608It has come in from the fringe, to sit in the seat of power in the 609oval office and in Congress. For the first time in our history, 610ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington. Theology 611asserts propositions that cannot be proven true; ideologues hold 612stoutly to a world view despite being contradicted by what is 613generally accepted as reality. When ideology and theology couple, 614their offspring are not always bad but they are always blind. 615-- Bill Moyers, 616http://www.tompaine.com/articles/the_delusional_is_no_longer_marginal.php 617</p> 618 619<p> 620The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth 621of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic 622State itself. That in its essence, is Fascism - ownership of 623government by an individual, by a group, or by any controlling private power. 624-- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Message proposing the "Standard Oil" 625Monopoly Investigation, 1938 626</p> 627 628<p> 629One of the things I routinely tell people is that if it's in the news, 630don't worry about it. By definition, "news" means that it hardly ever 631happens. If a risk is in the news, then it's probably not worth 632worrying about. When something is no longer reported -- automobile 633deaths, domestic violence -- when it's so common that it's not news, 634then you should start worrying. [...] 635(More people are killed every year by pigs than by sharks, which shows 636you how good we are at evaluating risk.) 637-- Bruce Schneier, 638http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-0505.html 639</p> 640 641<p> 642The hacker ethic that played such a large part in advancing 643computer science, building gcc, building Linux, indeed building the 644world's computer systems and engineering the biggest peaceful 645economic boom in history, is more than just a thirst for knowledge 646about computers. It's the obsessive belief that knowledge exists to 647be shared, that helping someone by making their computer run better 648(or their air conditioner) is one of life's joys, and that the 649rules that prevent sharing and helping exist to be broken. [...] 650The hero is the one who knows how to fix things, and fixes them -- 651despite not being "authorized." The evil is the paperwork we 652construct around ourselves, the forms and regulations that take the 653place of people freely helping each other. -- Jamie (of "Jamie and 654Emmett"), http://slashdot.org/features/00/04/22/0940241.shtml 655</p> 656 657<p> 658The basic difference is this: hackers build things, crackers break them. -- 659http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html 660</p> 661 662<p> 663The greater good of our society and our need to educate our 664populous for the benefit of all outweighs the narrow rights of the 665author to get paid in the short term.
666Our society and culture is the infrastructure that facilitates the 667creation of artistic works and therefore we reinvest a small 668portion of these works in the education of our authors so that we 669may have even more and better artistic works in the future. 670-- John Lange 671</p> 672 673<p> 674Overprotecting intellectual property is as harmful as underprotecting 675it. Culture is impossible without a rich public domain. Nothing today, 676likely nothing since we tamed fire, is genuinely new: Culture, like 677science and technology, grows by accretion, each new creator building 678on the works of those who came before. Overprotection stifles the 679very creative forces it's supposed to nurture. 680-- http://wikiquote.org/wiki/Alex_Kozinski 681</p> 682 683<p> 684The proper balance [in copyright] lies not only in recognizing the 685creator's rights but in giving due weight to their limited nature... 686excessive control by holders of copyrights and other forms of 687intellectual property may unduly limit the ability of the public domain 688to incorporate and embellish creative innovation in the long-term 689interests of society as a whole... 690-- Supreme Court of Canada, Théberge v Galerie d'Art du 691PetitChamplain inc (2002) 210 DLR (4th) 385 (SCC) at para 30. 692</p> 693 694<p> 695If you own a house, it's yours until you sell it. But if you 696have a neat idea, or write a fine book, it's yours for only a 697limited period, after which it enters the public domain, where 698everyone can have free and equal access to it. Theoretically, a 699copyright should last just long enough to give people an incentive 700to create and innovate. -- James Surowiecki, 701http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/?020121ta_talk_surowiecki 702</p> 703 704<p> 705There's no intrinsic reason why someone should continue to get 706paid for something long, long after the labor they expended on it is 707complete. Architects don't get paid every time someone steps into 708one of their buildings. They're paid to design the building, and 709that's that. The ostensible reason we have patent and copyright 710law is, as the US Constitution says, "to promote the Progress of 711Science and useful Arts." But travesties like the Digital 712Millennium Copyright Act don't promote the progress of science; 713they actively discourage it. So do software and biotechnology patents. 714The patent system was intended to allow inventors to profit for a 715limited time on particular inventions, not to allow huge technology 716companies to put a stranglehold on innovation by patenting every tiny 717advance they make. 718-- "The End Of Copyright", Ernest Adams, 719http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051128/adams_01.shtml 720</p> 721 722<p> 723Viewing creative works as property, however, leads to the presumption 724that they can and should be owned and controlled forever. But as we 725have seen, this is not what the Copyright Clause of the Constitution 726envisions, nor is it consistent with a free society. 727-- "The progress of science and useful arts: 728why copyright today threatens intellectual freedom", 729The Free Expression Policy Project, 730http://www.fepproject.org/policyreports/copyright2dintro.html 731</p> 732 733<p> 734The primary rationale for Intellectual Property protection is, first and 735foremost, to promote societal development by encouraging technological 736innovation. The legal monopoly granted to IP owners is an exceptional 737departure from the general principle of competitive markets as the best 738guarantee for securing the interest of society. The rationale for the 739exception is not that extraction of monopoly profits by the innovator 740is, of and in itself, good for society and so needs to be promoted. 741Rather, that properly controlled, such a monopoly, by providing an 742incentive for innovation, might produce sufficient benefits for society 743to compensate for the immediate loss to consumers as a result of the 744existence of a monopoly market instead of a competitive market. Monopoly 745rights, then, granted to IP holders is a special incentive that needs to 746be carefully calibrated by each country, in the light of its own 747circumstances, taking into account the overall costs and benefits of 748such protection. 749-- Statement by India at the Inter-Sessional Intergovernmental Meeting on 750a Development Agenda For <acronym title="World Intellectual Property 751Organization">WIPO</acronym>, April 11-13, 2005,
752http://www.digital-copyright.ca/discuss/4756 753</p> 754 755<p> 756Creativity and Innovation always builds on the past. 757The past always tries to control the creativity that builds upon it. 758Free societies enable the future by limiting this power of the past. 759Ours is less and less a free society. 760-- Lawrence Lessig, 761http://www.oreillynet.com/lpt/a/2641 762</p> 763 764<p>The U.S. is rapidly on the path to becoming the world's leading 765privacy rogue nation. - Joel Reidenberg 766(http://news.com.com/2100-1023-253826.html)</p> 767 768<p>The problem with privacy is that nobody cares about their 769privacy until after it's been violated. Only when Bill Gates 770discovered that his e-mail could be searched for a message about 771cutting off "Netscape's Air Supply" did he realize the danger in 772logging it. Many people only realize the danger in their records 773when they enter a lawsuit, or a custody battle. They all thought it 774would never happen to them. -- Brad Templeton, 775http://www.templetons.com/brad/gmail.html 776</p> 777 778<p>But, it is no less true that individuals are not free and are 779robbed of dignity if they must go through life knowing that third 780parties, and particularly agents of the state, may at any given 781time be looking over their shoulders monitoring, recording, 782cross-referencing, analyzing and possibly misconstruing everywhere 783they go, everything they do, every human contact, every 784transaction, every communication. 785That is why the fundamental human right of privacy is enshrined 786right alongside the right to be free from racial discrimination in 787the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Privacy is, in the 788resounding words of that distinguished resident of New Brunswick, 789retired Supreme Court Justice Gérard Laforest, "at the heart 790of liberty in the modern state". -- Privacy Commissioner of 791Canada 792</p> 793 794<p>In May 2004, a parliamentary committee recommended changes to 795Canadian copyright law modeled in part on controversial features of 796an American law known as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The 797committee characterized these changes as "responsive to the needs 798of all Canadians". 799The truth is that these proposed changes would drain millions of 800dollars from Canada's provincial education systems, threaten 801national security research and personal privacy, harm Canadian 802culture by enlarging the billion dollar Canadian culture deficit, 803and put Canadian business at a competitive disadvantage. 804http://www.cippic.ca/en/projects-cases/copyright-law-reform/truth.html</p> 805 806<p>A few years back Harold Evans of the London Sunday Times, 807observed that the challenge facing American newspapers "is not to 808stay in business -- it is to stay in journalism." As corporations' 809authoritarian, profit-driven consciousness comes to dominate both 810media and governance, you can expect a lot more serial celebrity 811scandals and even less news on the way things work or anything that 812really counts. -- W. David Kubiak, 813http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0312/S00040.htm 814(See https://medium.com/de-correspondent/optimizing-journalism-for-trust-1c67e81c123 for the same quote.)</p> 815 816<p> 817We have grave concerns about the potential use of <acronym title="Digital Rights Management">DRM</acronym>s by rightholders to 818override existing copyright exceptions," its statement said. 819In the long term, the restrictions would not expire when a work went 820out of copyright, it said, and it may be impossible to trace the 821rights holders by that time. 822"It is probable that no key would still exist to unlock the DRMs," 823Laca said. "For libraries this is serious." 824"This will fundamentally threaten the longstanding and accepted 825concepts of fair dealing and library privilege and undermine, or even 826prevent, legitimate public good access." 827-- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4675280.stm 828</p> 829 830<p> 831The difference between protecting your Privacy and Digital Rights Management (DRM): 832</p> 833<blockquote> 834<p> 835Privacy: In privacy scenarios there are three types of people: (1) a sender, 836(2) a receiver, and (3) an attacker. 837For example: you want to send your credit-card to an 838online store; an attacker wants to capture the number. Your personal security 839here concerns itself with protecting the integrity and secrecy of a 840message (your number) in transit. 841That act of personal privacy and security makes no attempt to restrict the 842disposition of your credit-card number after it is safely received by the 843store; it merely wants to secure the number in transit to the store by 844protecting it from attackers. 845</p> 846<p> 847Use-restriction (DRM): In DRM use-restriction scenarios, there are only 848two types of people: (1) a sender and (2) a receiver/attacker. 849Remarkably, <em>the receiver is also presumed to be an attacker 850 who is trying to misuse the message</em>. 851In effect, in DRM scenarios, there are only senders and attackers; 852the concept of a friendly "receiver" does not exist. 853I transmit a song to you so that you can listen to it, but I must 854stop you from copying the song, or perhaps stop you from listening to it 855more than you've paid for, or perhaps I must tell your computer to delete
856the song after your license expires. 857To be effective, this kind of DRM use-restriction <em>requires</em> that 858the equipment used to send, carry, and receive the song be totally under 859the sender's control so that the sender can fully control what you can do 860with the senders's song. 861Your computer that receives the sender's DRM content is no longer your 862computer, since for DRM to be effective the computer has to obey the 863sender's commands, not your commands. 864(If you could make your computer ignore the sender's commands, the DRM 865would not be effective.) 866</p> 867<p> 868Understood this way, DRM use-restriction and your personal privacy are 869completely antithetical. 870A computer that is capable of being remotely controlled by a third party 871who is adversarial to its owner is a computer that is capable of 872betraying its owner's personal privacy in numerous ways without the 873owner's consent or knowledge. 874The only way you can protect your privacy is if you control your own computer. 875If you control your computer, DRM can't work. 876</p> 877<p> 878A computer that can <em>never</em> be used to override its owner's wishes 879is by definition a computer that is better at protecting its owner's privacy. 880DRM requires you to give up control of your computer. 881As is often the case in security, increasing the security on one axis 882weakens the security on another. 883</p> 884<p> 885-- original idea by Cory Doctorow (modified from original by Ian!) 886</p> 887</blockquote> 888 889 890<p> 891[...] religions are owned; thoughts are owned. 892If everything can be tracked, someone will want to find a way 893to bill for it. 894-- Karl Schroeder speaking about his novel "Permanence" 895</p> 896 897<p> 898Should the government be suing Microsoft for violating antitrust laws? 899Perhaps. But doesn't it seem kind of odd for government lawyers to be 900typing Microsoft Word documents about how bad Microsoft is? If the 901federales were serious about increasing competition in the world of 902software it would be much more effective simply to convert government 903operations to open-source software. 904-- http://philip.greenspun.com/humor/bill-gates.html 905</p> 906 907<p> 908Here's what Bill Gates told Microsoft employees in 1991: 909</p> 910<blockquote> 911<p> 912 "If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of 913 today's ideas were invented and had taken out patents, the industry 914 would be at a complete standstill today...A future start-up with no 915 patents of its own will be forced to pay whatever price the giants 916 choose to impose." 917</p> 918</blockquote> 919<p> 920Mr. Gates' secret is out now--he too was a "communist;" he, too, 921recognized that software patents were harmful--until Microsoft became one 922of these giants. Now Microsoft aims to use software patents to impose 923whatever price it chooses on you and me. And if we object, Mr. Gates will 924call us "communists." 925-- Richard Stallman, http://news.com.com/2010-1071-5576230.html 926</p> 927 928<p> 929[E]ven if we pretended that Technical Protection Measures could 930work, we would have to acknowledge that they would be designed to 931enforce the wishes of the privilege holders, not the law. -- 932Matthew Skala, http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/lawpoli/copyright/consultations/otcpymtg.php</p> 933 934<p>One of the criteria of beauty is brevity. Bugs increase more 935than linearly with the size of a program. So, a shorter program 936will also have the very practical benefit of having fewer bugs. -- 937Paul Graham, 938http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2004/05/27/paul_graham_interview.html</p> 939 940<p>Having software be Open Source or not is not a technology 941choice, but a methodology choice around the creation of policy. An 942analogy would be to requiring that construction workers [abandon] 943building and safety codes, or suggesting that Government Access to 944Information laws are costly and thus should be abolished. Rational 945people do not suggest that it would be a good decision to save 946money and ignore these codes and critical governance accountability 947measures, but that is the essence what Steve Ballmer is asking 948people to do with software/policy decisions. -- Russell McOrmond 949http://lists.canopener.ca/pipermail/discuss/2004-February/001389.html</p> 950<p>The old Internet had one level, that of human beings, and they 951posted what interested them. Contemporary Internet users may find 952this hard to believe; but, most of the content was free, and 953everyone had something to offer (there were no pure consumers). 954<br> 955--
955Paul Lutus http://www.arachnoid.com/freeware/index.html 956</p> 957 958<p> 959Also, I have dumped Windows and now use Linux exclusively. I got tired 960of being inexorably drawn toward the police-state mentality that Bill 961Gates seems to prefer. Imagine buying a pizza, taking it home, and then 962discovering you have to call the pizza parlor for permission to eat it. 963Then imagine having to call the pizza place again, the next day, in 964order to be allowed to give the leftovers to your cat. You may object 965to this comparison - after all, Windows isn't a pizza. I agree. A 966pizza is worth more and lasts longer without collapsing. 967<br> 968-- Paul Lutus http://www.arachnoid.com/generalfaq/ 969</p> 970 971<div class="indent"> 972<p> 973The likely path of the Internet is one which finds it more stable but 974less interesting. Its financial transactions will be more trustworthy 975while its range of users' business models will narrow. Its attached 976consumer hardware will be easier to understand and use for purposes 977preconceived by its manufacturers, while being newly off-limits to 978amateur tinkering. Had such a state of affairs evolved by the Internet's 979twenty-fifth anniversary in 1994, it is plausible that many of its 980central uses of today would never have developed, because the software 981that underlies those uses would have been deprived of a platform through 982which to be readily distributed to and accepted by a mass market. 983<br> 984[...] 985<br> 986What is being built as a gated community -- offering safety and stability 987to its residents, and a predictable landlord to whom to complain when 988something goes wrong -- is in fact a prison, one whose confinement is less 989than obvious, since what it blocks is generativity -- the ability to have 990a shot at affecting the future without a regulating party's permission 991or consultation. It blocks the potential for transformative uses yet to 992be invented, a potential that is likely not in the minds of consumers 993when they buy their PCs -- but that they can cherish nonetheless should 994they have a chance to experience it as it unfolds. The network engineers 995will still be able to enjoy generative computing on platforms that do 996not run these operating systems. But the rest of the public will no 997longer automatically be brought along for the ride. 998<br> 999[...] 1000<br> 1001Such systemic barriers are deeply offensive to the values of Internet 1002designers, and they represent a drastic transformation of today's Net 1003from an engine of innovation to little more than interactive cable 1004television. 1005<br> 1006-- Jonathan L. Zittrain, The Future of the Internet - and How to Stop It 1007</p> 1008</div> 1009<p> 1010There will come a time when there is nobody left who will sign 1011up for the proposition that yes, indeed, I wanted people not to be 1012able to understand, learn, fix, improve or share the technology 1013that manned their lives because it was making me rich to keep them 1014unfree. Soon, and I do mean soon, the number of people willing to 1015admit "Yes, I sold the privilege of human communications to people 1016by the sip rather than acknowledging their right to be in touch 1017with one another, and it made me money, and I will grow rich," will 1018go down. 1019-- Eben Moglen, Free Software Foundation: www.fsf.org 1020</p> 1021<p> 1022We believe we can build better products collaborating with our 1023customers than we can hoarding technology from our customers. 1024Imagine buying a car where the hood was locked shut and you allowed 1025the dealer that you bought it from to retain the only key to the 1026hood of the car. Every other industry in a free market democracy 1027works the way open source does. It's only the software industry 1028that has this really weird, binary-only proprietary model. If you 1029don't have source code, and you don't have a license that allows 1030you to make changes to it, you have handed control of your 1031technological infrastructure either for your organization or for 1032your society to the developer of that software. - Bob Young, 1033co-founder of Red Hat Linux</p> 1034<p>Christian Einfeldt recounts, "One of the most moving interviews 1035among the hundred or so interviews that we have done so far for the 1036Digital Tipping Point film came from Brazilian Culture Minister 1037Gilberto Gil. He was describing what open source software meant to 1038him. He paused for a moment, spread his arms wide, and said with a 1039big smile on his face, "It's walking toward freedom, freedom of 1040use, freedom of speech, freedom of relationship... I think that's 1041what it's about." - 1042http://www.openoffice.org/editorial/year_four.html 1043</p> 1044<p> 1045As a proponent of open-source software, I am 100 percent and more in 1046favour of commercial software vendors clamping down on software pirates 1047with the full rigour of the law. Why should honest open-source developers 1048face cut-price competition because Microsoft is too lazy to pursue 1049pirates? In particular, I think it is complely disgraceful and unethical 1050than Microsoft turns a blind eye to software piracy throughout the third 1051world. This only encourages people to become addicted to software they 1052can never afford to buy, and discourages them from using open-source 1053software which is completely and permanently affordable. 1054- http://www.mealldubh.org/ 1055</p> 1056<p> 1057"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. 1058Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, 1059by definition, not smart enough to debug it." - Brian W. Kernighan 1060</p> 1061<p> 1062On protest:</p> 1063<div class="indent"> 1064<p>A year or two after emigrating, she happened to be in Paris on 1065the anniversary of the Russian invasion of her country 1066(Czechoslovakia). A protest march had been scheduled, and she felt 1067driven to take part. Fists raised high, the young Frenchmen shouted 1068out slogans condemning Soviet imperialism. She liked the slogans, 1069but to her surprise she found herself unable to shout along with 1070them. She lasted only a few minutes in the parade.</p> 1071<p>When she told her French friends about it, they were amazed. 1072``You mean you don't want to fight the occupation of your 1073country?'' She would have liked to tell them that behind Communism, 1074Fascism, behind all occupations and invasions lurks a more basic, 1075pervasive evil and that the image of that evil was a parade of 1076people marching with raised fists and shouting identical syllables 1077in unison. But she knew she would never be able to make them 1078understand. Embarrassed, she changed the subject. -- Milan Kundera, 1079The Unbearable Lightness of Being - 1080http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/show/146529</p> 1081</div> 1082<p>Quotation from a commentator on CNN: "The United Nations 1083peacekeeping force could hamper the war effort."</p> 1084<p>It isn't always obvious what the final destination is. If we 1085send a message to a light to turn on, is the operation complete 1086when the switch is thrown, when the light itself glows or when (and 1087if) the room is sufficiently bright. There is no one right answer, 1088and a network that imposes one will only frustrate innovation. 1089-Bob Frankston 1090http://www.frankston.com/public/essays/IPAnIntroduction.asp</p> 1091<p>On the flight to Las Vegas I saw a TechTV show in which a lucky
1092winner's house got a digital makeover that consisted of putting 1093flat panel TVs everywhere. The technology may be digital but it is 1094not empowering -- the TV broadcasters are still in total control of 1095what is available to watch and the consumer is just that -- a 1096consumer. [...] There is no sharp distinction between components 1097and "solutions" -- it depends on how I use it though some are 1098easier to build on than others. The key is having an interface that 1099allows me to write my own software. [...] Companies steeped in a 1100tradition of providing complete solutions find it hard to even 1101grasp the concept of innovation at the edges. Digital systems have 1102changed the rules because it is becoming increasingly feasible for 1103people to do things themselves. -Bob Frankston 1104http://www.frankston.com/public/writing.asp?name=attheedge</p> 1105<p>All of these stories are about attempts to prevent users (that 1106is, all of us) from getting access to connectivity and from being 1107able to add value. That's a very big story but as long as the 1108reporting is so clueless and focused on consequences rather than 1109what is really going on it will be hard for us to make informed 1110decisions. -Bob Frankston 1111http://www.satn.org/archive/2004_02_22_archive.html#107756804659206421</p> 1112<p>Richard told a wonderful story to Allision the other day, one 1113about how we live. I have an apartment. Tracey does. Peter has our 1114house with various creatures living with him. Richard has an 1115apartment. Various other friends live in various other places. But 1116we all have email accounts in shared places. When I wake up, I flip 1117on the computer system, grab a cup of instant and a shower, and 1118when I arrive back at the terminal, there are some telnet sessions 1119running, Eudora kicked in, and email pouring onto the screen. I 1120instantly say morning to whoever is awake already, although Peter 1121and Tracey keep different hours. Richard wakes up an hour or two 1122after me, and logs on. We chat a bit, ask about the other's welfare 1123and breakfast state. Richard's story was that we all live in a 1124virtually shared huge old house, with many bedrooms all over the 1125place, and a central kitchen and living room. Each bedroom is an 1126apartment, the central areas connected by Internet tech. We each 1127sit with our own cats, our own loved ones, our own furniture, and 1128our own thoughts, and share them every morning and throughout the 1129day. - Carolyn Burke - 1130http://carolyn.org/Page23.html or 1131http://web.archive.org/web/20011020073622/carolyn.org/Page23.html</p> 1132<p>[...] in that 30 years, we saw a 40% decrease in the length of 1133Time Magazine cover stories and a 25% decrease in the New York 1134Times opinion pieces. So here we have a world that is more complex, 1135requiring the management of more information, more subtle 1136decision-making, and yet we are providing less opportunities for 1137people to express complex ideas about those problems. - Thomas 1138Homer-Dixon</p> 1139<p>As a cryptography and computer security expert, I have never 1140understood the current fuss about the open source software 1141movement. In the cryptography world, we consider open source 1142necessary for good security; we have for decades. Public security 1143is always more secure than proprietary security. It's true for 1144cryptographic algorithms, security protocols, and security source 1145code. For us, open source isn't just a business model; it's smart 1146engineering practice. -Bruce Schneier 1147http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-9909.html</p> 1148<p>Commercial success isn't measured by whether you *like* the 1149product; it's measured by whether you *buy* the product. It's 1150difficult for users of commercial software to click on anything 1151that isn't there to make the parent company more money. Things are 1152in Linux because people *like* them there. -Ian!</p> 1153<p>Next time your boss comes to you and asks "Can't you just...?" 1154Stop. Think about what he just asked. Your boss is managing 1155complexity and he doesn't even know it, and he's just described the 1156interface he wants. Before you dismiss him as asking for the 1157impossible, at least consider whether or not you could arrange 1158things so that it looks like you're doing the really simple thing 1159he's asking for, rather than making it obvious to all your users 1160that you're doing the really complex thing that you have to do to 1161achieve what he asked for. You know that's what you're doing, but 1162you don't have to share your pain with people who don't know or 1163care about the underlying complexity. - Piers Cawley 1164http://pc1.bofhadsl.ftech.co.uk:8080/archives/000009.html</p> 1165<p>Do the <acronym title="Digital Millenium Copyright Act">DMCA</acronym> et. al. really retard the 'bad guys'? After all, the 1166DMCA is just a law, and the bad guys, by definition, are not law 1167followers. They could care less. But it does impact the 'good 1168guys', particularly those doing security research [...] "Rain 1169Forest Puppy" http://www.wiretrip.net/rfp/txt/evolution.txt</p> 1170<p>A popular response is: "If you have nothing to hide, you have 1171nothing to fear." [...] The truth is that we all do have something 1172to hide, not because it's criminal or even shameful, but simply
1173because it's private. - Privacy Commissioner of Canada.</p> 1174<p>I've always been a believer in antitrust. It's the concentration 1175of power that bothers me, not whether it's "for profit" or "for 1176government." [...] And I just knew that if I lived in California I 1177would stay there and not travel and not see the rest of the world; 1178whereas in New York I was always flying to California, but I was 1179still taking the subway in the morning, encountering homeless 1180people on the street, dealing with just much more of reality than 1181you have in California. You live a really privileged life out here. 1182You created all of this without the government and there's very 1183much a sense of "Well gee, why can't everybody just be like us?" - 1184Esther Dyson</p> 1185<p>On risque de pleurer un peu si l'on s'est laisse' apprivoiser. - 1186A.deS.E.</p> 1187<p>The better you do your job, the less people will notice you. - 1188Tom Reingold</p> 1189<p>The trouble with doing something right the first time is that 1190nobody appreciates how difficult it was. - anon</p> 1191<p>Most people, if they counted how many people swam across the 1192river, would never think about building bridges. - Ronald 1193Altman</p> 1194<p>Why should we limit computers to the lies people tell them 1195through keyboards? - Bill Gosper, <acronym title="Massachusetts 1196Institute of Technology">MIT</acronym> <acronym title="Artificial 1197Intelligence">AI</acronym> Lab</p> 1198<p>Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his 1199judgement, and he betrays, instead of serves you, if he sacrifices 1200it to your opinion. -- Edmund Burke, Speech to the electors of 1201Bristol. 3 Nov. 1774</p> 1202<p>There is simply no way that a bunch of people in Redmond or 1203anybody in Silicon Valley here can anticipate the needs of anybody 1204who is remotely interesting, and that includes most children and 1205some adults. - Alan Kay 1206</p> 1207<p> 1208Community is enhanced by a common listening experience. When listening 1209to the live Hober stream, you are sharing a global experience, rather 1210than being shunted into single-faceted canned programs. 1211-- http://hober.com/ 1212</p> 1213<p> 1214[...] When people are firmly rooted in their community, they 1215must pay attention to what the community thinks of them; but when 1216they can easily pull up stakes, they only need to look out for 1217themselves. [...] there is something wrong with making the survival 1218of the fittest the guiding principle of a civilized society. [...] 1219success is an inadequate basis for holding a belief because being 1220successful is not identical with being right. [...] Conflicting 1221views and interests will produce an open society only if there are 1222institutions dedicated to the common good, allowing people with 1223different views and interests to live together in peace. [...] - 1224George Soros www.soros.org/personal.html</p> 1225<p>This is a crucial slip. In referring to the service economy, Cox 1226violates the Wired principle that everyone in the Information Age 1227will be a Web jock. Instead, most of us will work in Wal Mart 1228(which now employs a population as large as South Dakota's), or at 1229Starbuck's, pouring coffee for the Information Elite. There, the 1230defining skill will be sucking up. - Jedediah S. Purdy, Harvard 1231Perspective</p> 1232 1233<p>Lars Osberg, an economist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, 1234has come up with a graphic way to illustrate the size of this army 1235of unemployed Canadians and the enormous waste of its idleness. 1236Let's suppose that the army was put to work building something 1237highly labour-intensive - something like, say, the great pyramids 1238of ancient Egypt - using the exact same primitive technology that 1239was available back in the 26th century B.C. Osberg calculates 1240unemployed Canadians could have built no fewer than seven pyramids 1241since 1990 and be well on their way to completing their eighth. 1242-- Linda McQuaig, "The Cult of Impotence: Selling the Myth of Powerlessness 1243in the Global Economy"</p> 1244 1245<p>The idea that the poor - and the rich - will always be with us 1246is not new. But never before has the split been so unambiguous, so 1247unequivocal. The reason is simple. The rich - who happen also to be 1248the most politically powerful - no longer need the poor. They do 1249not need the poor for the salvation of their souls - which they do 1250not believe they have and which at any rate they would not consider 1251worthy of care. Nor do the rich need the poor for staying rich or 1252getting richer - in fact they reckon they would be better off if 1253the poor weren't there at all, making claims on their riches. 1254 The poor are not a reserve army of labour which needs to be 1255groomed back into wealth-production. Neither are they consumers who 1256must be tempted and cajoled into "giving the lead to economic 1257recovery". Whichever way you look at it, the poor are of no use. 1258This is a real novelty in a world undergoing perhaps the deepest 1259transformation in the long history of humankind. 1260-- Zygmunt Bauman, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Leeds University 1261</p> 1262 1263<p> 1264When I tried to smile at the deformed man near the beach, my stomach 1265churned uncomfortably. It made me remember the time when I was a 9 1266years old, visiting family in New York, and being overcome with sadness 1267by streets overflowing with homeless people (before Rudy Giuliani 1268shipped them all upstate.) I tried to put on a kind face for the badly 1269deformed man but, it still brought into sharp focus the thin line between 1270vacationing in the third world and taking part in what Sierra's father 1271calls the "pornography of poverty." 1272-- Doug Karr, http://www.livingroomwar.blogspot.com/ 1273</p> 1274 1275<p>The US government, and no doubt governments all over the world, 1276will use the climate of war as an excuse to curtail civil 1277liberties, deny free speech, lay off workers, harass ethnic and 1278religious minorities, cut back on public spending and divert huge 1279amounts of money to the defence industry. To what purpose? 1280President Bush can no more "rid the world of evil-doers" than he 1281can stock it with saints. It's absurd for the US government to even 1282toy with the notion that it can stamp out terrorism with more 1283violence and oppression. Terrorism is the symptom, not the disease. 1284Terrorism has no country. It's transnational, as global an 1285enterprise as Coke or Pepsi or Nike. At the first sign of trouble, 1286terrorists can pull up stakes and move their "factories" from 1287country to country in search of a better deal. Just like the 1288multi-nationals. - © Arundhati Roy 2001 - 1289http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4266289,00.html</p> 1290<p>Terror is in the human heart. We must remove this terror from 1291the heart. Destroying the human heart, both physically and 1292psychologically, is what we must absolutely avoid. The root of 1293terrorism should be identified, so that it can be removed. The root 1294of terrorism is misunderstanding, intolerance, hatred, revenge and 1295hopelessness. This root cannot be located by the military. Bombs 1296and missiles cannot reach it, let alone destroy it. Only with the 1297practice of looking deeply can our insight reveal and identify this 1298root. Only with the practice of deep listening and compassion can 1299it be transformed and removed. - Thich Nhat Hanh, November 2002 - 1300http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2002/11/00_hanh_strike.htm</p> 1301<p>"The secret of life," declared sculptor Henry Moore to poet 1302Donald Hall, "is to have a task, something you devote your entire 1303life to, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day 1304for your whole life. And the most important thing is -- it must be 1305something you cannot possibly do." 1306- https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/148751-the-secret-of-life-is-to-have-a-task-something 1307</p> 1308<p>What we wanted to preserve was just not a good environment in 1309which to do programming, but a system around which a fellowship 1310could form. - Dennis Ritchie (co-originator of the Unix operating 1311system)</p> 1312<p>Laws are the spider's webs which, if anything small falls into 1313them they ensnare it, but large things break through and escape. 1314--Solon, statesman (c.638-c558 <acronym title="Before Christian Era">BCE</acronym>)</p> 1315<p>Think of the Linux community as a niche economy isolated by its 1316beliefs. Kind of like the Amish, except that our religion requires 1317us to use _higher_ technology than everyone else. -- Donald B.
1318Marti Jr.</p> 1319<p>In 1954, when Jonas Salk developed a polio vaccine, he never for 1320a moment considered the idea of pursuing individual ownership 1321rights to the discovery. Nor did Salk imagine the idea of licensing 1322the vaccine in an effort to personally control the direction of 1323future research in the field. In fact, Salk's funder, the March of 1324Dimes, prohibited patenting or the receipt of royalties on the 1325results of its research projects. When Edward R. Murrow, the 1326renowned television commentator of the day, asked, "Who will 1327control the new pharmaceutical?" Salk replied that, naturally, the 1328discovery belonged to the public. "There is no patent," he said. 1329"Could you patent the sun?" -- "Trouble on the Endless Frontier" by 1330Seth Shulman http://www.publicknowledge.org/</p> 1331<p>People understand instinctively that the best way for computer 1332programs to communicate with each other is for each of them to 1333be strict in what they emit, and liberal in what they accept. The 1334odd thing is that people themselves are not willing to be strict in 1335how they speak and liberal in how they listen. -- Larry Wall, 1336http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/larry.html 1337</p> 1338<p> 1339In short, I was trying real hard not to look like a complete idiot and 1340I probably spent a few hours penning that first tentative question. As 1341luck would have it, the responses I got back were polite and helpful. 1342I was even more surprised when one of my early questions was answered 1343by one of the developers. Here's me, an absolute nobody, who has 1344probably asked a very basic question and someone famous (in this 1345project anyways) took the time to point me in the right direction. 1346Looking back, I'm sure that's the moment where a part of my brain said 1347"this is where you belong". 1348-- Dru Lavigne, 1349http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/unix/bsd/archives/006968.asp 1350</p> 1351<p> 1352When people pay $70 to a company for cable TV, 1353everyone says the users are paying for "content". 1354When people pay $70 to a company for Internet, 1355everyone says the users are getting Internet content "for free" 1356and aren't willing to pay for content. 1357The company has to pay for TV programming that it offers to its customers, 1358but it doesn't pay anything for the Internet content it offers. 1359Perhaps the ISPs should be sending some of that $70 to all the 1360"free" Internet content producers! 1361- paraphrased from Tim O'Reilly 1362"The Clothesline Paradox and the Sharing Economy" 1363at OSCON 2012 1364http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbcgmf6eDKU 1365</p> 1366<p> 1367The Internet *is* diverse; unless, you're exclusively a 1368Microsoft user. Windows users are locked into a Microsoft view of 1369the world where everyone clicks on the same menus, and the menus 1370contain only the things that Microsoft puts there. It's hard for 1371Windows users to click on things whose purpose isn't to make 1372Microsoft more money. -Ian! 1373</p> 1374 1375<p>Home is a place where you are without having to justify why 1376you're there. -Ian!</p> 1377 1378<p> 1379Why I use Linux, and some of my Linux <a href="linux_like.txt">background</a> . 1380</p> 1381 1382<p>Web hosting under Free / Open Source software: Linux/Apache</p> 1383</div> 1384 1385<hr> 1386 1387 <p style="font-style: italic; font-size: 80%"> 1388 Web hosting under Free / Open Source software: GNU/Linux/Apache/PHP. 1389 Webmaster: <a href="http://idallen.com/">Ian! D. Allen</a> 1390 Updated: 1391 1392 2023-11-16 23:17 EST[-0500] 1393 <br> 1394 <a href="http://www.catb.org/hacker-emblem/"> 1395 <img class="middle" src="glider.png" 1396 alt="Hacker Ideals Emblem" height="55" width="55"></a> 1397 <em>The <a href="http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/H/hacker.html">real 1398 definition of Hacker</a></em> 1399 <br> 1400 <a href="http://www.fsf.org/register_form?referrer=9625"><img 1401 class="middle" 1402 src="images/fsf9625.png" alt="[FSF Associate Member]" 1403 width="88" height="31"> 1404 <em>Support Free Software GNU/Linux</em> 1405 </a> 1406 <br> 1407 <a href="https://freedns.afraid.org/"><img 1408 class="middle" 1409 src="https://freedns.afraid.org/images/powerani.gif" alt="FreeBSD Daemon Logo"> 1410 <em>Support Free DNS</em> 1411 </a> 1412 <br>
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