Category: Other Efforts

Their Success Means Destroying Your Memories

It’s good. Though I think Anil overestimates the social value of Facebook, Twitter, etc. But, on the flip side, you won’t know I said this because I don’t have a presence on those places – and I want to be the kind of person that does. Blah.

Charter City: iii Citadel

“The Citadel Community will house between 3,500 and 7,000 patriotic American families who agree that being prepared for the emergencies of life and being proficient with the American icon of Liberty — the Rifle — are prudent measures. There will be no HOA. There will be no recycling police and no local ordinance enforcers from City Hall.”

“Each household will provide ONE able-bodied Patriot (aged 13 or older) who shall muster one Saturday per month for Martial/Support Training for neighborhood-level training & musters, as set forth by the Militia Commanders of the Community.”

Sam Muirhead Starts a Year of Living Open Source

“For one year I am trying to go as open source as possible, in all aspects of my life – the shoes I wear, the phone I use, even how I get around. I’m not buying any proprietary or traditionally copyrighted products unless all other options are exhausted. I’m looking for and switching to more open, transparent products which are replicable by others, trying to highlight the benefits of treating others as collaborators rather than competitors. I’ll be investigating how the open source philosophy might apply to different areas of life, where it fits well, and where it might not work.” – Sam Muirhead

more @ yearofopensource.net

Just Solve the Problem Month

“What I know to be true is that there are a number of “problems” out there that need to be solved, that need one single thing to push them from “impossible” to “solved”, or, at least, “1.0″. And that thing that it needs is a lot of human thinking. Often rote, often boring, but necessary, to slam that thing out.” – Jason Scott

An inspirational read proclaiming November 2012 as “SOLVE THE FILE FORMAT PROBLEM MONTH.”.

EFF’s Computer Owner’s Bill of Rights

  1. Installation of arbitrary applications on the device.
    If the user wishes to, they should not be limited to what is included in one particular proprietary “app store.”
  2. Access to the phone OS at the root/superuser/hypervisor/administrator level.
    If consumers wish to examine the low-level code that is running in their pockets, to check for invasions of privacy, run the anti-virus software of their choice, join VPNs, install firewalls, or just tinker with their operating systems, phone and device companies have no legitimate basis for preventing this.
  3. The option to install a different OS altogether.
    If people want to install Linux on their iPhones, Boot to Gecko on their Windows phones, or just run a different version of Android on their Android phones, the company that sold them the hardware must not prevent them. Using a cryptographic bootloader to defend against malware is a fine idea, but there must be a way to reconfigure this security mechanism to (1) allow an alternative OS to be installed; and (2) to offer the same cryptographic protections for the alternative OS.
  4. Hardware warranties that are clearly independent of software warranties.
    Apple denies warranty coverage to users who have jailbroken their iPhones. While nobody is asking Apple to support jailbroken or modified software, it is inexcusable that the company threatens not to cover, say, a faulty screen, if the customer has chosen to modify the software on their device.