Democracy upgrade: Selection of ministerial candidates for specific ministries

 It is high time we upgraded democracy. Not much has changed since the introduction of democratic principles by the Greeks. No, I am not talking about elections. Elections are what makes people to know that they are in a democracy. Free and fair elections are the hallmark of all great democracies. Elections done through physical ballot paper, electronic voting machines or in the future through websites, or through mobile phones with sims tied to the individual voter with privacy protecting and randomization tech etc. I am OK with any kind of the election process until it is free, privacy honored and protected and of-course, fair. 

 I am talking about the elected representatives. See, once we vote, like every five years, we forget the election process and are involved with the individual we have selected in the electoral process. This individual is what the public is going to interact for the next five years. So, we should put lot more effort into ensuring that the public will elect the person with the best capabilities for the job. There is a lot of feedback from the voters that they don’t have much options. Many of the times it will be the worst against junk, works against worst, worst against better worse, worst against lesser worse etc. As a voter, you are supposed to exercise your power and choose the best among the worst. This is something which the present generation is not able to digest. This fact makes many of the young voters to utilize the most important day of their life which is going to decide how they will lead out their next 05 years, on a vacation. This is a serious issue. The philosophy of democracy is totally defeated. 

The young do not want to participate in the electoral process as candidates or as voters for one and only reason. There is no clarity. There is no documented path. There is no real simple procedure laid out for any educated individual to utilize his education and knowledge more than think about all the modalities of how to win elections and how to sway voters minds. The same is with the voters. They do not know what is the differentiation factor between the candidates. These days, majority of the elections are fought on race, caste, religion and Jingoism or popularism. This is a wrong development. The young educated electorate is a global electorate. They are much above all these trivial things. They are all more about bettering human life, create a better and cleaner planet. Now, how do we make the voter to get involved, seriously in the selection process and on the way, impress the younger lot to participate in the election as candidates and enter leadership positions. 

Let us see how the present method of allocating ministries work. The most powerful/submissive candidates are given plum ministries. Either the minister selected will be so powerful, the media will never touch him or the minister is so submissive that the party leadership will take care of him and his ministry as per the party requirements. This is a serious concern. Ministries are allocated on whims and fancies, not on logical lines. My suggestion is to ask candidates to prepare like they are going to a job interview. However, this job is of the highest stature in the country. 

The election commission should call out for vacancies for the ministerial post and come out with minimum educational/emotional/personal traits which are required to run the particular ministry. The commission should also publish formats for the candidates to fill up and submit including what is wrong with the present ministerial situation, what is to be done to correct it and how it will be done, what is the vision of the candidate for the next 05 years. The parties are free to nominate their candidates. However, we now have a framework for independent candidates with a penchant for this kind of job profile. We will have many candidates who don’t like to work in the executive but be the public front end to experience the issues in the first person. These people will be in a position to guide the executive instead of the other way round. With this we will have a tight watch on the executive also. The executive normally slips into the background with the ministers being the front end. With ministers who have learnt the threads of the ministry with the aim of heading the ministry, we have a minister who understands the language of the ministry. 

The election commission, on receipt of the applications with all this info should provide wide publicity indicating the plan and vision of each candidate. TV and the internet news channels should chew into the info given and come out with feasible studies and the far-reaching results of the vision of the candidates. Newspapers should talk about each ministry and the candidates and more on their commitments and vision for the country. They should bring out the background of all candidates which in turn will help the voters to understand the intent of the candidate. This brings in the interest of the voter to understand the candidate. Now, the voter cannot escape by saying that they are not having any info. They should be bombarded with information. By information, it should be more of data and should be less of what the article writer thinks. Anyhow, now the voter need not depend on the news sources. He can download the documents submitted by the candidates and process them side by side since the applications are standardized. Comparison for the modern youth will be a piece of cake. 

There will be an excitement, buzz, discussions, arguments for and against the candidates. Suddenly your will see that the discussions of parties will vanish. The concentration is on the candidate. Now, you will vote for your best home minister, your best IT minister, your best finance minister and so on. You have chosen. You have taken the responsibility. At the end of five years, you can reward him, if he has met his commitment or you can just throw him out in the next election. When choosing a candidate for a specific ministry, you have to be careful. Because, as a whole this ministry has to work as a single machine with different types of gears, linkages, computer controls. A single gear which is out of sync can bring down the entire machinery down. There is added responsibility on the voter which was not existent until now. The voter was escaping his job in democracy quoting lack of clarity. Now, the voter has to optimize his options based on the excellent data available. We observe that the voter and the elected minister now have a bond. The voter knows what can be expected from the minister and the minister knows what is expected from him. The beauty of democracy. 

Yes, I can understand you are brimming with ideas. Go ahead, write it down. You may lose it. That is what writing is about. You inspire with your vague idea and it will give birth to many a leafs, which in turn will nurture the your idea tree. It will live long, much longer than your human life. So, again, Please write.

Librem 5, The phone all the GNU fans wanted

After a wait of nearly a year I have received the librem5. It has brought me immense joy to hold the phone in my hand. I funded the venture only to fund the effort. I was never looking forward to the phone. Placed the order through a friend's friend's .... friend in the States. The camaraderie to help out a friend without even knowing what is it I am buying goes a long way to explain the concept of friendship. It is amazing. Though the phone was received a year ago, it had to wait for the friends to come to our country. This requirement was very clear. It will come only when the friend is free and wants to visit his country. 

 It was pure ecstasy when I held the phone in my hand. It was like some sort of magic. I was holding the phone which was a culmination of efforts of so many like minded people with the singular effort and aim to make a "Free as in Freedom" phone. Having started using GNU/Linux since 2002, since my first PIII PC, I have run GNU/Linux on all my desktops and Laptops including Macbook Airs and Macbook pros. Let me not forget the countless hours spent on learning to use the "Freedom" way on the computers. It was difficult. I have persevered. I love the freedom I gain for the effort put in to customize the OS. I love the fact that every single word, every single screen, every single action is tailor made for me. 

For a person who knows the value of Freedom, GNU/Linux is my wet dream. Let us not forget the hours spent on modding Android phones to run CyanongenMod and Lineage OS on many Android devices over the years. Again, I loved the freedom these mods presented me when using a phone. While all other phones bound the user and made them to learn it their way. I had my phone tailor made to work my way. Yes, GNU/Linux is a rabbit hole. Yes, GNU/Linux is free if you do not consider time as money. 

Coming back to the L5, holding a phone which has GNU/Linux out of the box, was sheer excitement. For the first time, after buying a computer, I need not spend hours to bring the device and its characters to my liking. For the first time, I just started using it in "as is" condition. A great win for all the developers/users/visionaries who believed in the project. For me, it is still unbelievable. Yes, I know, it took a lot of time. It angered many of the investors. As for me, I was confident on the team to produce a working phone. My main confidence lay in the software stack, ie, GNU/Linux. It was always available for the purism team. 

I have forgotten when I ordered by L5. It does not matter now, nor it mattered when I ordered. When I received the phone, I explained the intention of me ordering the phone and the philosophy behind it to my friends. It went above their heads. Paying "that" money and waiting for "that" many years was not entering their heads. They know my passion, but still could not put their head together to understand this amount of madness. However, they were happy for me receiving the phone for which I had "Paid" with plenty of difficulties. 

I opened the phone and connected it to the charger. The lights were running in disco pattern and nothing was happening except that the vibration motor was running crazy and matching the disco lights on the device. A quick search took me to the purism how-to's and in seconds had my phone charging. Booted into the device and was immediately at home with the UI. It was just a small sized GNOME shell. 

Everything was familiar. Everything looked in its place. Everything was inviting me to hack on the device. Immediately install i3 and the like and have a dark background with nothing on it with a launcher on demand. This has to wait. I want to experience the vanilla L5. I want to savor all the efforts put in by the entire team of purism and all the independent devs and users across the world by using it and providing valuable feedback. 

Please acknowledge my heartfelt gratitude for embarking on a journey with no support from any big corporation, in the present modern times wherein, no government is questioning the strategy of throwing out phone/laptops since the batteries of the phone are made non-removable. Criminal. 

Of course, I am just getting started!!

Artificial Brain

Thank you Bram Moolenaar

 

Are indivduals in any part of the world, Free

     The world celebrated an anniversary of the end of fight for freedom, which happened in one of the largest country, not valuing, you guessed it, Freedom. Has it got to be celebrated, Yes. Period. Is it alright to just celebrate it and then go ahead with our daily routine, no? So, what are we supposed to? Well, dont ask me. I am out of answer as much as you are. 

     The human race has reached a situation where some portion of the people fight for the majority portion of the freedom of people. This fight for freedom is not what was warranted when, humans developed their brains and formed societies. The problem started brewing once societies started being formed. Along the formation, of societies morals were being framed. Rights and wrongs were being hardwired. Some societies thought they were better than the others...Ah, what was I talking about... What am I talking about now? Are they related?

    The thing is should we remember only major ones. Should we not find out and celebrate smaller struggles by individuals across the globe. The news agencies and the entire societies have started to incorporate a very bad idea that one person talking anything about issues believed right by a majority is wrong. This is the most deemed to be free countries, which again is confused with democracies. Democracy is not freedom. Freedom is not the same as democracy. 

    Freedom is not given by anybody to anybody. It is just there. If it has to be given and it has to be taken, then both sides are flawed. So, if a democratic setup tells that you a free to do that and this and then that and then IFTTT.... it is not freedom. It is bondage. Wherein your are given a certain degrees of freedom. 

    There are democracies with varying number of degrees of freedom. So, the country with the highest degrees of freedom is the ultimate? No. Freedom is and should be a given. Isn't it wrong then, that a free(er) parts of the world are not doing anything to improve the degrees of freedom of countries with a lesser number of freedoms. Yes, it is. But, are you allowed to express the same and are you capable of doing something on this issue. Are you given this freedom. Can a theoretically free individual free the group of people who are not having the same? It is impossible.

    Let us take the next scenario. Let us assume that the entire world of people are really free. Now let us assume a certain group of people want to create a society with lesser degree of freedom. Now, the world can act against it and make sure that they are again free. Good. Now, do these people really want to be free. Many people dont know the meaning of freedom. 

    The rich countries have sowed seeds in the minds of the people that Democracy is freedom. So, instead of fighting for freedom, people are fighting for democracy. So, what is freedom? How do people feel freedom? Is the lack of knowledge of freedom, freedom? Isn't the same be applicable to people who are slaves upto their last cell? Is anarchy the best form of freedom. Does anarchy give the individual that theoretical freedom? But, then again, you are branding individuals to a set of rules and conditions which fist spells out anarchy and then the individual has to figure out freedom.

Are you, the individual, Free?

The same post on the federated web  https://qua.name/wrrfhlepep

"Right to repair" has to come with "Ease of repair"

     I normally dont post links in my blog. They die over time and it is very difficult to link it again, if a reader wants the link again. However, these two links have to be mentioned and I am privileged to post the link. If any individual/company has any issues with me posting the link here. Kindly comment and appropriate action will be taken.

https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=nvVafMi0l68
https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=-F-Wxj-v9-g

    The first link talks about "right to repair". The video is from Linus. One of the most prolific tech video producer I have come across. In this video, he talks about an initiative started by Louis, a crowd funded effort to argue "right to repair". The second video is a "Thank you" video from Louis. Between these two videos, the viewer will have a clear understanding of this "right". This right should be in the list of fundamental rights in any democratic nation. In this age of consumerism, right to repair, is what is going to save the customer and the planet. Many people dont know the real meaning of a "right". Let us first understand that. Let us talk about "Right to freedom of speech". What does this tell. Well, it just tells that you are free to talk your mind. So, what if you dont want to talk your mind. Well, this right has got you covered. You have the right to not talk your mind. The right tells that, if you want to talk, you can, if you dont want, then you are free not to talk. Let us put this explanation and draw parallel for the "right to repair".

    Let us assume that one consumer thinks that, any tech should not be repaired by the customer or on behalf of the customer by a third party. This action is part of "right to repair". If any other customer wants to carry out repairs, then he is also in this right. He is free to do so. If anybody thinks that no customer should be allowed to repair a gadget, the right to repair, applies to him also. He has the right to not get his gadget repaired. If anybody wants to carry out repairs, then this individual can. If this is clear, then as a consumer, you need not worry. If you are a rich person and instead of repairs, you would like a shiny new one, go ahead. If any others want to repair, then we are not damaging your chances of not repairing it. You are still free to pay huge money for a new one.

    I still remember my 1st pc, purchased in the year 2001. Every specific component was hand picked based on the money available. Any issue with the computer, I used to open up the complete chasis and try changing all the components and then one change would make the pc working again. Ring to 2021, Majority of the computers have soldered components. There were enterprising indivduals, who understood the complete schematics of the computer and started to de-solder the individual components and replace with newer ones. Yes, it is a niche market, but, it is still doable. 

    Now, what should the bigger companies do now. Well, bring it all within the processor die. What are we going to do about it, Well, I am blank as of now. The components on the die has provided the fastest bus for communication between the components, which was not achievable if the components are laid out on a Motherboard. But, this is a nightmare for the repair aficionados. Since all the major components of a computer are now in the processor die, you cannot upgrade your pc. If one component on the processor die, dies, the whole computer is as good as junk. For the re-soldering industry the only option is to remover the processor die and replace with a new one. But, this replacement will be exorbitantly high. How will the customer bear these costs. These costs might motivate the customer to just buy a new black box.

    Right to repair is one thing, capability to repair is one more thing. The big corporations are now on a path wherein, even if we do win the right to repair, it will be difficult for individuals and hobbyists to carry out repairs. The new products from Apple only have speakers and thermals outside the processor die. With right to repair, we should start a revolution for ease of repair also. Without ease of repair, there is no use of having right to repair. Let us wish that other technologically competitive individuals take up this aspect of "ease of repair" also. Otherwise the fight for "right to repair" will be laid waste.

raspberry pi os 64 bit on the raspberry pi 4(4 GB)

Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any damage to your pi for following any of the instruction below. These instructions are what I have used  on my pi. There might be no gurantee that it might work on yours. You have been warned.

So, now you know that there is a 64 bit beta OS for the raspberry pi. I dont know about you, but from the day I bought the pi 4 I always wanted to run the 64 bit version of any Gnu/Linux distro. I tried many flavors. I tried ubuntu, manjaro and gentoo. I rolled back to the 32 bit raspbian because it was a complete and highly optimized OS for the rpi 4. But I was sad that though the board supports 64 bit OS, we were holding back on its capabilities. The problem as always while distro-hopping is that you have to re-start majority of your configuration and app installs. So, things in the home directory can be moved easily, but other tiny optimizations we do, we forget it. This process has to start afresh. It is not an easy thing to do. The rpi does not fly in terms of computing power.

Anyhow, we are now holding the efforts of the rpi foundation in releasing a 64 bit OS with a more beefy pi with 8 GB. That will be happy news for people running servers on their pis. For us desktop users, the 4GB version will be fine for a certain amount of time. That is a very subjective line. Let us not dwell more on it. It is indeed time to laud the efforts of the rpi foundation for supporting pis from the first generation to the present with OS updates across the devices. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate and thank the rpi foundation and the numerous contributors, beta testers and users for bringing the 64 bit OS to our favorite pi.

Thanks is also for bringing the USB boot support. This make the rpi application more universal. I had a pi 4 which had the sd card slot damaged. I taped the sd card in the slot with much difficulty and then flashed the latest bootloader. There we have it, the pi is now alive again. Thanks again to every person involved.

To start off with the USB boot support.

1. Download the latest 64 bit beta raspberry pi OS(raspbian is now renamed to this)
2. Install it on your spare sd card(8GB min is recommended)
3. Boot your rpi from this sd card
4. You now get a taste of your new rpi os 64 bit
5. Go through the setup and it will automatically upgrade all the packages.
6. reboot
7. sudo apt-get update
8. sudo apt-get upgrade
9. sudo rpi-update          ---Now, be careful here. This installs the bleeding edge kernel an other bleeding edge blobs. This is also a disclaimer regarding any damage to you pi after this. You are on your own. I have done it and many others as well and have not faced any issues.
10. reboot
11. sudo apt-get update
12. sudo apt-get upgrade
13. reboot
14. sudo nvim /etc/default/rpi-eeprom-update
    and change the "critical" to "beta"
15. reboot
16. cd /lib/firmware/raspberrypi/bootloader/beta/
17. check the latest files starting with pieeprom-
18. Now run
    sudo rpi-eeprom-update -d -f /lib/firmware/raspberrypi/bootloader/beta/latest-file from step 17
19. poweroff
20. Repeat step 1 and 2 with your ssd
23. unmount the ssd and re-connect again
24. Now the boot partition which is a fat partition will get mounted or you have to mount it on your GNU/Linux.
25. Open the file config.txt and edit the file with the following information regarding the overclocking of your pi(A disclaimer again here. This overclock has been safe on my pi with a fan connected and with heat sinks on the processor and the graphics unit. I am not responsible for any damage to you pi)

 over_voltage=6
 arm_freq=2140
 arm_freq_min=400
 gpu_freq=750

26. If you had slower ssd speeds previously dont forget to enter the quirks into the file cmdline.txt
27. Connect your ssd to your usb3 port of the pi and remove the sd card.
28. Power on the pi
29. If your boot is painfully slow then you should refer to this post. https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=245931


Enjoy the fruits of freedom software and its ethos. Dont forget to spread the ethics of freedom software and this may not include the price you paid for the software.

Privacy in the present world

Privacy: When people listen to this word they normally associate with privacy from their parents, siblings or their friends. So, when somebody tells they want some "privacy" they mean "me" time and thats it. This is the definition of many of the people. The big companies and the state are making use of this mentality of people to generalize privacy and to re-instate this definition of privacy. So what you get to maintain your privacy, Your phone unlocks only with your finger print, so none of your family can use it. If it was a code maybe your parents would ask for your code and you would be pressurized to give it when you are away. Now , you have the finger print scanner and when you are away the phone is a brick which nobody can access. You have got your privacy. Congratulations.

Now, while your phone is locked and seemingly a brick to your father and yourself is more live than you. It is sending out and receiving data continuously. it is after all a computer and computers as you know are not tired. The amount of horse power in the present devices is enormous and all this is put to use 24 hours a day. Not even a second is left. When you are not using your phone facebook is busy getting the text your entered into whatsapp before your shoot send. Because before you shoot send the text and all other information you want to share is UN-encrypted. So now facebook has that data which you wanted to send through your favorite encrypted free messaging system. Though the founders have departed, the juggernaut rolls on. Of course facebook knows to whom you sent the data. So, you are basically using facebook whole over again in the guise of encryption.

You will definitely ask me why take that example. Well that nearly covers majority of the users on the planet outside the apple ecosystem. Now let us come to the make believe elite system which use the apple ecosystem. I always believed that apple had strong business ethics, not moral ethics. Like their hardware and software is elite and unique to their Eco-system. They will sell their devices at a premium and what the user does with that is not their concern. This I think was happening with all their desktop and laptop offering before the iphone. With the iphone came the moral conundrum. Actually the iphone to start with did not create this issue. The issue was created by google with its android ecosystem. Here was a company which is going to make money by selling user data. By targeting users with ads related to their tastes. How do you do it? Get the user to accept a complicated user agreement before you can access the device. It did not stop at ads. It progressed to speech recognition, AI and so on.

Now the thing is data became important. The costliest commodity on the planet next to the rarest element on the planet. The same strategy which the printing companies did with their cartridges. Though the printers could be given free since the users had to buy a physical product, Here, the phones could not be given for free. They are complicated computers. In this case the users are f*&d all ways in all the holes. You buy a premium phone and you will be giving away more data. It is like having the cake and the icing too. Your phone is pinging data every mill-second. It is pinging data to all corners of the world.

You are now having an app ecosystem to bring you out of this mess. Well, these apps are all built out of user contributions. The phone makers can alter the operating system itself to bypass all these apps which try to stop these pingings. So, if your phone is connected to the public network with the present crop for smart phones, you are pinging data. Have you not been surprised to see a link or a post related to "masturbation" after watching porn on your phone. Your were asking what are they going to do with the data. Now, it has been answered. This is one of the simplest way intelligence is taken out of your data consumed an exported from your device. Just imaging the amount of data collected through out the world and then feed it to "Big data" to make it even bigger.

Privacy is the context  have been talking in the previous paragraphs. it is not what is described in the first para. The corporations have moved from text and binary data to voice and video. It is difficult to know whether the mic is activated through out the life of your phone or only switches on when you watch porn. And while doing so, it might the device might switch on the front facing camera also. Just see how embarrassing it might be. You might be talking about an ailment or your friends ailments or you might talk about buying something. You might do a search for a particular ailment a product. It is recorded against your id. the corporations can combine it with your data sets and come out with the perfect ad or will feed you more of what you talked. You watch a thriller in Netflix, you are offered an unknown number of the same genre. You will be shown links related to them, but your are their unsuspecting user and you will click through it. This relation is generated by the the data they have collected from the whole world. Though you feel UN-related this link will re-inforce whatever you were searching for.

All corporations now hire behavioral scientists, data researchers who help them with their strategies. So, how do we get out of it? Do we want to get out of it? Are we happy in our walled paradise? Do we value our private data? Do we thing we have nothing to hide? Do we think we dont have anything of value? Do we think commenting and up-voting of posts on social media yields nothing to anybody?Is convenience a better trade-off for individual privacy? Is an individual of no value? Is an individual only a data generator? Is an individual not a human? Will the individual stand up for his rights?

Meeting RMS at Mandya(Once in a lifetime opportunity), Karnataka, India

As I have written in many of my blog posts regarding my introduction to computing in 2002. No event affected me more than the reading of RMS's escapades with the printer at the AI laboratory. There was something about the philosophy being churned out in the help file withing the church of emacs. Now, maybe if i had tried editing my configuration files in vi I wouldnt have come across this philosophy of sharing. I still am not sure what prompted me to fire up emacs from my RH 6 machine. I finished the tutor and the was looking for further directions. It was at that time I read the about page on emacs. From that day I have been an ardent fan of RMS and his strict idealistic ideologies which is a mouthful for many an individuals who take sharing as sharing and nothing else. It is very difficult to understand him. He is egoistic. He is very strict on his beliefs and ideologies. I still remember when he last visited India and was interviewed by swapnil bhartiya. He did not drink bottled water until he got a bottled water not manufactured by coca cola. The reason being that he was against some un-ethical practises by the said company in some part of the world.


Let me come back to the present. I was damn lucky to meet him in person at Mandya, Karnataka, India. The event was organized by FSMK(Free software movement, Karnataka). I did not know that such a group existed and am indebted to their efforts in organizing this event. Now, how did I know about it. I am not on any proprietary social networks. I got the information on Mastodon. This makes my decision to stay on Non-proprietary online information sharing tools more interesting. This place, Mandya, is around 100Kms from my place. It was a 2 hour journey. I was present in the auditorium an hour before the stipulated time. There were announcements made to the attendees regarding the mentioning of Linux and GNU/Linux. He was on time and he walked in to a rousing standing reception. And the first one liner was shot. "Dont stand for me, stand for free software" He removed his shoes and started his presentation almost immediately. He did not want to waste a minute. He wanted to get right to the point almost immediately. The organizers were shocked at his speed. It took some time to get their bearings. After 10 minutes or so into his talk, The Indian way of welcoming the guest with a Mysore peta(Traditional cap of Mysore made with silk thread and a sandal wood garland) was done.


His homework regarding the local issues were excellent. He asked for "Mandya Gowdara Tea". Since there was a delay he was given tea made from Tea bags he had brought all along. He spelt the name of the language spoken in our parts perfectly i,e, Kannada(Majority of the Indians who dont stay in our parts spell it Kannad, which is wrong). The most striking was the parallel he drew of our freedom struggle with the present software freedom struggle. His say was that to gain freedom we have to embrace things which we are not comfortable. Freedom is not free. We have to work for it. In the Indian freedom struggle though the British flooded the Indian market with ready to wear clothes from Great Britain(Of course the raw material was from India). We as Indians fought against it by announcing swaraj, wherein we starting spinning our own textile raw material and stitching our own clothes from raw cotton. This was definitely not comfortable at all. But that is a cost we paid for gaining the freedom we cherish(or taken for granted) today. Excellent point. He used the word "Svatantra", the kannada word for "libre" instead of "Uchita" for "Free". RMS, I love you.


The talk and the content was standard. The freedoms associated with the software licensed with GNU GPL v3 and above and why all the developers should use this version particularly and also mention "GNU GPL v3 and higher" which would make the job of the FSF easy when faced with issues regarding copyright.


As usual, the Q&A is where he succeeds or fails miserably


There were questions regarding privacy, china government's mode of working etc which received long and boring answers. Let us cut back to the little interesting ones.


Q. I wanted to contribute to the FSF. When I opened the contribution page I saw that the amount of information I have to give before even entering the payment details was more than that required for opening an amazon account. The contribution process should be simple and as easy as clicking a button
A. Oh. I dont know about this. e-mail me the web page you are talking about. The payment cannot be as simple as a single click(It is for the reader to decide what is right or wrong about his answer)
Q. Wil the development of GNU os continue
A. No. It will not be developed. We had all the userland utilities and were lacking a kernel. Now we have the Linux kernel.
Q. What are the future projects of fsf
A. Oh, you can see our website regarding where the money comes and goes. librejs is being developed to remove the proprietary JS being used.
Q. What about building social networks. Like GNU social
A. Muffled answer.(I dont remember much)
Q. Free software conservancy hosted few videos on its website requiring proprietary JS implementation which if not enabled is not allowing to be viewed and fsf is one of the sponsor of the event of the video. Isnt it ethically wrong
A. I cannot keep track off each and every activity of the FSF.(summary I dont know and I am not going to anything about it)
Q. As a first time developer I am very interested in making money. How am I going to make money by giving my code away
A. (Unclear points) followed by You can work as a waiter for a living and then you can code in your spare time for the public good. If I did not have this job then I would have been a waiter to support what I am doing now.


Thank you,RMS, for everything you have done and will do in your endeavor towards pushing freedom software. Yes there will be fallacies, there will be pitfalls. But walking the talk is what matters. In a world where ethics are washed out at the drop of a hat, we have you, as a benchmark for the philosophic side of freedom software. I wish you would live for eternity, negating all the naysayers.

Governments, Anyone?

The public network is full of posts, views and counter views. If we give a closer look at the various posts in general, covering nearly all the topics available to mankind and closely analyze the comments, views and counter views, we see that anybody is commenting on anything. That means that everybody knows about or wants to know or has framed his views without knowing anything. The latter's views are normally based on the generalization of the present subject with his specialization. This gives us the conclusion(?) that everybody knows about everything and everybody are capable of giving their own views about everything. Is it? Shall we generalize a little further and tell there is nothing any "body" can do to change the views, Inertia? Does this mean there is no need for any "body" to tell us what to do and what not to? Does this mean we know what is expected from every "body" without anybody explicitly stating it? Does this mean that we have ceased to be taught or we can "manage" ourselves? In other terms is there no need for us to be governed by an elite few? By extrapolating a little further shall we state it in more dangerous terms "We don't need governments"?

OMG, Blasphemy!!!!!!? or would it be a relief? Do governments govern the borders of their political control or borders were born out of the capabilities of the local governments? These governing bodies can be traced back.... previous post... Social adjustments gave way to profit motives in the guise of optimizations they reached a crescendo. After several iterations of societal setup we ended up with classifying the people based on the tasks they were doing and then gradually several tasks were made more important than others and in turn, we had classes increasing by importance. All of a sudden people doing few tasks were more equal than other equal people down the societal setup. As people were grouped based on tasks, the initial industries were also based on the same setup. The initial optimizations was from the artisans themselves by grouping themselves together. The higher groups/classes saw opportunity here also. They wanted to increase the size of the groups so that they could have the advantages of scale. There is the seed of today's large corporations.

Every "body" is attached and dependent on some corporations directly or indirectly. The corporations tell what is expected of every person attached to them. When these controls were not enough, corporations turned to a third party, the governing bodies to bind all the people to corporations. As though, people were born only for this, to work for corporations. There are very rare occasions wherein people have led their life without their umbilical cord not attached to the corporations. Such people will immediately be knighted and an image created wherein it will be told that all others cannot become him or think like him. Now, they have only one person with the "free" attitude while others stay enslaved thinking that they are too "norm" to reach that stature.

The governing bodies(governments henceforth), tell people they should work for corporations to fulfill their worth of being born. The other people whose mentality and attitudes don't suit this labyrinth of laws are labeled unstable or great whichever suits them better.

So, what is the problem now? Governments frame laws to help corporations and corporations employ people, what is wrong. The thing is this system is prepping artificial number ones. If any individual does have the real vision of the society, he will grow up and build better corporations with better hold on the governments. So, the society is being prepared in such a way that if there is anybody against it, he will be treated to the high in the society so that he will become one among the oppressors or else he will vanish into oblivion.

Thing is, the educational level has gone up. Information is available at the finger tips. Anybody wants to know about the rigveda they are welcome to do so. They want to understand Einstein's work they are free to do that also. People know what is expected of them. They know to maintain equilibrium in the world. They know that the number of java programmers have exceeded the requirement. They do suitable adjustments. They make true the basic law of nature, that of "equilibrium". Now it is the time to dictate the expectations from the corporations as well as the governments. Everybody wants to make a difference to the world. Though many of them don't show they have that latent feeling towards nature. Provided an opportunity, they would do miracles for the betterment of the whole world. They would do better than send some food packets to the under-developed countries which feed all the necessary raw materials required for the materialistic life of developed countries.

Of course there would definitely be ideals which would be beyond comprehension to the society and in the same vein society would be incapable of convincing that they are wrong(wrong, either might be). Anomalies do exist and exist they should. It is like the floating point math. Nothing in the world is discrete.

Now, what if, nobody is governing them, ie, there are no governments. just imagine. People move about freely, like minded people pool their ideas irrespective of the borders/languages/caste/color. The same applies to the anomaly group of the existing societal setup. If the anomaly groups argues and convinces the regular part of the society, they will grow, otherwise, there is no way they can come into their own. Why, because, they don't have an enemy now. There were people unhappy with governments/corporations. What are they unhappy about, high rise buildings, no. They are unhappy about "people" running these establishments. This minority is telling the majority how they should lead their life. The 1% of the people are defining the word "intelligence" for the remaining 99%.

You can now argue with me that the majority of the governments formed are democratic. But, we all know the pitfalls of democracy. The person elected by 51% of the people will decide their fate as well as the fate of the remaining 49% who did not vote for him. This is a most theoretical example in a democratic setup. There have been instances where people have won elections by getting only 10% to 20% of the votes. People voting in a democracy have one more constraint, that they have to chose the best of the worst. So we do elect somebody, because, that is the essence of democracy. Yo don't vote, you are missing the whole point. If at all, you give an option for none of the above, in the ballot paper, what are you going to do if the majority of the votes are for this option. what if it is a minority? Oh, my god, Democracy.

Why shouldn't people go about their business without any governing body? Will the huge corporations themselves run their local governments. The most important and deciding factor here is the military. For a situation, wherein, we don't have governments, the first step is to de-militarize the entire world. Now you will tell me the dark forces will take over. You also will definitely tell me that all this is going to happen only over a bloody revolution. That was easy to tell. That was an obvious answer from anybody since the beginning of this subject.

At this time, I would like to know how many people in the wold would like to take to arms when all that the world wants is an equilibrium state, wherein, everybody does his own thing. What about people who know to only handle arms? How will they make their living in this situation.

All the governing bodies in the world was not formed in a day. They were formed because a need was created for their forming and we were "convinced" of that need. Once we were convinced of that need we had to accept the result. Now with the information age upon us, wherein information is generated and assimilated by everybody, do we need to be governed? We know what we can and what we do best. Why should be try to fit ourselves. How would it be if the world expanded and adjusted to us? Awesome. How many Einsteins would we have? Cant tell, because, we have not tried it. We have always complained that the present society is a one size fits all scene.

We now talk about mass customization. When we can go that extra mile for non-living things to suit us, why are we neglecting the same for people. Come one. Cant we remodel the society to embed customization. Each his own. Was it too much an ask?

Eliminate the borders, eliminate the governing bodies, Bring in self help groups, bring in voluntary lead or led individuals and wait for the planet to reach an equilibrium. What, what did I hear? communism, socialism, No, No, I don't want to hear any of it. They are all based on governance. They are but different styles of governance withe varying amount of freedom for the individuals and society as a whole. Will the corporations die? No. The corporations needed will survive. The apt people capable of doing that particular job will position themselves. Everybody would rush to 5 star hotels/resorts? Yes, maybe. But it will not survive. Somebody has to work/pay for the upkeep. People now are smart enough and know they cannot be made sheep once again by pigs and wolves. They know everybody's contribution is of importance. Everybody's voluntary trivial and non-trivial contributions are the requirements for making a truly equilibrium/chaotic situation instead of a non-voluntary controlled situation.

Is freedom worth the fight

Is freedom worth anything? Countries fought for freedom and several others continue to do so. Do they know the value of freedom? Countries which have been free from eternity, do they know the value of freedom? Countries who fought and are fighting, in that country do everybody know what freedom is or what are they going to do when they "get" it. Do everybody in the country fight for it? Do everybody in the country want it? Are people so much engrossed in their "walled garden" that they dont want to skip the ecstasy of staying in a "walled garden"? Are people programmed to such an extent that they dont want to look beyond the garden? Are they getting whatever they want in that garden? Is it only "that much" they pine for or made to pine for? The infinite human brain, is it reduced to the pea sized brain of the dinasour? Are human capabilities going back? Can freedom wake people from their walled gardens and make them to look beyond the garden? Can freedom yield brains with capabilities as huge as the dark energy. Is freedom the panacea for all the problems in the world? Will freedom allow the human brain to overcome the law of least resistance?

Are people, who fight for freedom, fight for everybody, or for an elite group of enlightened people. Is fighting for freedom and interpreting it, the job of an elite group of people? Is the largesse independent of the freedom school of thought? Is the largesse there just to enjoy the benifits of the struggle by this elite group of freedom fighters? And after getting the much sought out freedom, is the largesse free to carry on enjoying in their walled garden. Is that the aim of the struggle? Were there no people who were happy slaving around just to keep themselves and their walled garden happy? Are the largesse supposed to continue with status quo without any inhibitions, without any contributions back to the society? Are people fighting for freedom in their own "walled garden"?

Is creativity, improvement, social attributes, general good, world citizen, not embedded in the spirit of freedom? Is freedom a seperate word? Is the word freedom in its own "walled garden" Is it an "ideology" which the largesse dont understand or they think that they should not understand, or they think that it is not their job? Is the present societal setup such that people are made to forget the value of freedom and made slavery a more shiny word to use? Are the largesse happy with the perpetual freedom handed over to them by the big corporations? Do the corporations change the scope and meaning of it every now and then?

Ok. So, You have freedom. How many are using it? Has it affected the brain usage of the largesse in any way? You tell me, this is what freedom is about. In summary you are making these statements

I am whatever I am, however I am, I will be "I"
I will strive to be "me"
I am here to prove Newtons laws of motion
I will resist, if futile, I will take an equillibrium position taking the least resistance path
If not acted upon, but still the external environment is changing, I will not, why should I, I am happy with whatever I am
I will try with all my effort to make the environment around me a shield so strong, I cannot be acted upon
I love me being elitely me
I think of only myself
I am happy that the knowledge of the world is free because of freedom. But I dont want freedom. I am happy with me not knowing anthing about freedom.
I am in a free world but I dont care about freedom
I use all the facilities coming with freedom
I dont care about all the drawbacks it has. Oh, come on, when I didnt care much about freedom do i care about the lack of it
The society is just there. It was created in a fraction of a second. Mankind is whatever it is, just like that created again, in a fraction of a second.
I have my place on this planet. But, that is not the result of freedom. It was just there.
I am happy with my walled garden. I dont care how it was raised. It may be full of holes, I am happy with it.
I dont have any problem in staying in a walled garden full of loopholes to be exploited.
I care a damn about freedom or the lack of it.


Long live "Freedom"

AOSP on Sony xperia Z

Disclaimer: I dont take any responsibility for the damage of your equipment. If you point your ire at me, I will have the last laugh. USE THE INFO AT YOUR OWN RISK.



Sony android phone team has taken the android philosophy very seriously. This is one team within sony which is passionate w.r.t idea, philosophy and legality of FLOSS. If we compare the android and the GNU/Linux eco-system, I would sum up the relation between them by using Android/Linux for android and GNU/Linux for the desktop OS which we are familiar with. While GNU used the Linux kernel for coming up with a complete Desktop OS, Google built the UI shell and other mobile telephony stack over the Linux kernel. But, the similarity ends there.

The two components of GNU/Linux are licensed with "free as in freedom" philosophy with the GPL.(Though the linux kernel is licensed with GPL V2 and the GNU utils are mostly licensed with the latest GPL version). The source code of the original program and all its improvements are always and should be made available in source form for public consumption.

If we come to Android/Linux, the first part is licensed under the Apache license. This is a permissive licensing philosophy, wherein, the original source and its improvements "may" be provided in source form if the author wishes, or else the source can be withheld and only the binaries "may" be provided for public consumption. So, the author, google, and other mobile manufacturers who licence android from google are not compelled to share the original source code(scripted by google) or any variations of it for use by various mobile manufacturers with the general public. The result is, if google wants to put out the source for its newest shiny android version it will, if it is not in a mood to do it, then also, google is honoring the apache license. The second part, the linux kernel, is licensed under GPL v2, google and all the mobile manufacturers have to honor the license and give out the kernel with all their additions and alterations for public consumption.

This post is about sony, let us continue. Sony is the only phone manufacturer which honors the GPL for the linux kernel meticulously, it is almost like clockwork. Even if the sony mobile team has released a beta kernel for a specific device, the source is out within a week. But, But, with Xperia S, sony took their commitment to the FLOSS philosophy a step ahead. They went ahead and release the "android" portion of the OS also for public consumption, again, of course under the apache license. There your are. You have the entire gamot of source code of "Android/Linux" in your hands, now, Go Play.

Once the sony smartphone team released the source for xperia Z, their flagship phone for 2013(while other manufacturers closely guard their flagship phones for nearly a year by not releasing the kernel source which they are supposed to do with the release of the device), I had decided that will be my next phone. It does not match with my primary requirement of hardware keyboard, but, the hardware specs was awesome and the purple color was beautiful on this phone.

The XDA forums is full of various spins of upmarket roms with "n" number of customizations. You will be spoilt for choice. Only one rom of mention still struggling is the MIUI. But devs are on it and I definitely believe they will succeed in running it on the Z.

Oh, let us get back to our topic, FLOSS. Google releases the source code after baking the lates version of the android OS in-house. It is released under the label "AOSP" ie, the Android Open Source Project. This will be the most generic tree of the source. Normally, it would be difficult to compile this vanilla version as it is and run it on a phone. It would be missing the device specific code required to get it running on a specific phone. The other missing thing, vital, would be the binaries which are required to use the all the hardware(SoC) properly.

Now, we have a completely new word here, binary, yes all FLOSS enthusiasts hate it. Every manufacturer makes use of an Arm SoC or an Intel SoC. The manufacturer provides the drivers for these hardware components. But, the hardware manufacturers dont play well with the FLOSS philosophy. They guard their hardware, its implementation and usage with hawk eyes. The driver are always release in the form of blobs(Binary large objects). They have to be linked in during the compile stage of the rom to result in a fully working rom to be installed on your device.

We now have one non-freedom component on our otherwise "free as i freedom" system. But, we are somewhat ok with it.(Apologies to RMS). Anybody can compile an AOSP rom for the xperia z. The sources are at github with clear instructions for building it. You just have to have good bandwidth, patience, building on GNU/Linux (64 bit)(building on windows,..... forget it) and a lot of googling to use the experience of developers over the XDA forums.

If you dont want to compile it, An XDA developer going by the username pabx, has done it for us. Before I proceed, if you are an XDA member go and thank him. If you have a paypal account donate to him. This rom compiled/developed by him is awesome. It is one of the minimal rom I have seen and used. When I backed it up with CWM, with all my usual apps installed, the backup size was, believe it (or not), 560MB. How awesome is that. Compare it with the stock rom whic is approx 1.7GB. Now, that is light. But do remember that it is minus all the bells and whistles. It may not be visually appealing compared to the stock rom. Few quirks might be lurking here and there. My major quirks were two. One, the volume is awfully low(Stock rom with purexaudio is awesome. Hear it to believe it). Two, Plugging an earpiece without mic will result in phone calls not being audible both for the caller and the receptor. The number two problem does not exist for earpiece with mic(for eg, the sony supplied one). One more issue is the video playback. On the stock rom it is great even when the processor is underclocked to 800MHz with the hardware decoder. On the AOSP rom you have to use the software decoder for better performance.

How do we install this awesome effort on our phone?

Before you unlock your bootloader, try this tool. This is to backup the TA partition which is required for the Bravia Engine to work(Just remember that the Bravia engine comes into play when you watch a video or photographs. Otherwise the BE does not do anything during the general use of the device.) I have not tried this. But please go through the thread. It is quite big and intimidating. I did backup the TA partition but not tried to restore it back. But there are numerous examples on the thread where people have restored the TA partition and got back the BE. Please do remember that for restoring the TA, you should be back on "pure" stock(kernel and the rom).

If possible make an .ftf of your current stock rom or download one(Just in case)
Install flashtool
Install fastboot drivers from within the flashtool installation(The installer is in C:/flashtool/drivers). Double click the .exe in that folder. If you are using windows 7 or windows 8 go here)

1. Unlock your bootloader go here
2. Root the device go here
3. Install CWM recovery go here
4. Backup the stock rom with CWM recovery brief intro
5. Enter CWM and clear data, cache and dalvik cache
6. shutdown the phone
7. Connect one end of the USB cable to the computer and plug in the phone end of the cable to the phone while simultaneously pressing and holding the volume up button
8. Download pabx's effort from here
9. Extract the archive (unzip pabx_aosp_yuga*.zip) to c:\flashtool\x10_flasher_lib\
10. Open the cmd window on windows and change directory to x10_flasher_lib

run the command below
  
fastboot devices

 -- It should list the device name (not exactly the name of the device) If you get an output, then continue, otherwise you have problems regarding fastboot drivers. If you get an output, run these commands(wait for completion of the command befor entering another)

fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot flash system system.img

If this is an initial installation,
also run:

fastboot flash userdata userdata.img

# NOTE: The above command will wipe all your data and the internal SD card - only do this on first-install of this rom.

Now run
   
fastboot reboot  ---Or just disconnnect and reboot

Now, we have to root this rom. Download superuser and copy it to the external sd card of your device. reboot the device, press the volume up button continously as the phone reboots, you will enter CWM(the swiss army knife). Choose Install zip/Install from external sd card and choose the file.

reboot

Now you are rooted with an AOSP rom.

Now, we should boot into pure vanilla experience. Of course, you need google apps like the play store, gmail, maps etc... Download this, copy to external sd card and repeat the procedure for installing it via cwm.

reboot

You now have the play store. Go ahead and install your favorite apps.



Advanced:-

To get more realestate from your phone, edit the build.prop in /system with root explorer and change the lcd density to 320.


Operating the phone using the softkeys at the bottom of this huge phone is tricky. Install LMT launcher. start the app, start the service, click the option of start this app at boot. Then edit the build.prop in /system and add the following line at the bottom


qemu.hw.mainkeys=1

reboot

If the media players are not able to save the album details and they show empty libraries, then Edit file /system/etc/permissions/platform.xml

    Find text

    name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"
        group gid="sdcard_rw"

    And replace it with

permission name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"         group gid="sdcard_rw"
        group gid="media_rw"   ---> Only this line is to be added in the format exactly as in the file with the arrows and the backslashes

    Reboot

    Make it with caution. XMLs are very syntax sensitive. Any mistake may make your phone inoperable.


Thanks to all the users and fantastic devs at XDA for bringing in excitement into the phone arena. The info has been culled from various resources. If any user/dev requires a mention please comment. It will be immediately updated.

UPDATE: 12.11.2013:   Owing to un-ethical kang of pabx's rom, his builds and discussion will now happen http://www.blinkenlights.ch/ccms/android/yuga.html
He has succesfully compiled kitkat for our device. The most important of all we now have double tap to wake for our xperia z thanx to championswimmer, dev at the xda. It is now available for this AOSP rom also. For further instructions please visit the above link and also visit his thread on xda. 

GNU/Linux on Apple Macbook Air 4.2 (Late 2011) part 1

 Disclaimer: I dont take any responsibility for the damage of your equipment. If you point your ire at me, I will have the last laugh. USE THE INFO AT YOUR OWN RISK.

This post is my continuation of my earlier post where I drooled over the hardware implementation of Macbook air. After that post I have seen all the notebook manufacturers try to make a clone and majority have failed except for the samsung versions which have better connectivity options compared to the Air. But Macbook air is still the king in lightweight laptops. Why do I drool over the Airs being a hardcore freedom software evangelist? Hardware, exquisitely crafted hardware.

Let us get down to freeing the Macbook air from propreitory software it is running. I have chosen Arch GNU/Linux as my GNU OS of choice having read reports of it running beatifully on Mac hardware and not interested in running the Microsoft of the windows world, Ubuntu GNU/Linux.
Coming from Debian GNU/Linux, I saw that the ncurses interface for installing the basic OS is very similar. There was a shocker waiting for me. After downloading the latest x86_64 build, I connected the external DVD drive borrowed from my friend and booted it. What happens, The installer starts and dumps me into a root prompt. Thats it. I have installed slackware GNU/Linux and Debian GNU/Linux with neat installers though still ncurses based.

Time to search the public network. Now I see that the ncurses installer has been done away with. You have to install everything manually. Ofcourse there are lot of tools provided by the Arch GNU/Linux project to make the process simple and straight forward. At this juncture I would like to mention about the Arch WIKI. This is one of the most detailed wiki documentation I have gone through seconded or equalled only by the Gentoo GNU/Linux wiki.The wiki is written beautifully and is very easy to comprehend by anybody with a basic GNU/Linux background. In the process, I chrooted to another GNU/Linux installation for the first time and the raw power of the UNIX philosophy hit me on my face. KUDOS to all the "freeedom" developers.





Here are the links/resources/works/efforts I made use of in liberating my Macbook Air.

http://d.goodlad.net/articles/arch_linux_on_mba_42/

http://blog.billsdon.com/2011/12/triple-boot-13inch-macbook-air-4-2-2011-model/

http://www.billsdon.com/2011/12/install-linux-mint-12-lisa-13inch-macbook-air-4-2-2011-model/

http://plopez.nfshost.com/2011_macbook_air_pure_efi_dual-boot

http://calummacrae.blogspot.in/2012/06/control-freaks-macbook-air-introduction.html

http://maketecheasier.com/install-dual-boot-ubuntu-in-macbook-air/2012/08/27

http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2012/10/10/dual-boot-windows-7-and-ubuntu-12-04-on-a-pc-with-uefi-board-ssd-and-hdd/

The next post will be having all the gory details of installing Arch GNU/Linux on the Macbook air.

Tivoization and freedom

What is Tivoisation. I would direct you to websearch for indepth explanation or the text of GPL V3 would be more suitable if you are reallllllly interested in this topic.

As a layman's explanation, Tivoisation is the situation where a hardware vendor though is in compliance with GPL v2(That is, the source code for the GPL'd code used in the hardware is released back to the community in the same license, you could call it the "firmware") does not allow the users or buyers of the hardware to flash the hardware with modified firmware compiled from the modified firmware source.

Let us say, U have bought a dvd player, whose firmware is built up completely of GPL'd software. Now, U download the source published by the dvd player manufacturer and put some programming effort in adding additional functions/capabilities to the existing ones. Yes, U have done a great job. Now u have to flash the device with this additional capability. But, stop, U cant do it. The manufacturer will not allow this and probably if you go ahead you will lose your warranty.

Now, there is one more side to this. A rival company wants to manufacture a similar dvd player. He gets the hardware pieces which are similar form standard vendors. He will take this improved/updated firmware created by the individual and flash his device with this. So, You have a dvd player with additional capability in the market for the same price.

Is this desirable. Yes. It is very much desirable. If the initial manufacturer had a broader view of the word "freedom" he would have accepted the changes and incorporated in all the dvd players and provide a free update to all the existing users. The world is an excellent place to live in. If he doesnt want to do it himself he should allow the programmer to flash his improvements on to the hardware. The user payed for the hardware also. He has all the rights to get the last drop of performance from his device. The manufacturer should not lock the device down for further improvements. The customer should have the right to modify/improve the device he has bought. The customer should be "free" to incorporate the improvements and also share the same with his friends and in turn upgrading his device also.

I am against Tivoization. I understand my device better. I know its capabilities. I know how its use can be extended. If I dont know my friend knows. I want to incorporate his improvements on my device. Its my device. I should be free to use it and improve it. Damn the warranty. I liked the way, RMS thought about the whole issue of tivoization. I know Linus torvalds doesnt like this. He wants the Linux kernel on the majority of platforms/devices. Time is the only answer to these disparity of views. I am happy that RMS detected these issues and added corrections in GPL v3.

Freedom of Expression, suppressed.

So, what is an objectionable content? How are we going to define the word "objectionable" A search on google gave out "Arousing distaste or opposition; unpleasant or offensive" as meaning. Was that objectionable to post meaning of this particular word since people(kids, adults alike and irrespective of gender) would know about it and start debating.

I have never used that particular word this much in my past. I am now seeing it and hearing it everywhere. They tell we should stop "users" from posting objectionable content about other "users" and ofcourse, the government. Now, what or who is "government" Government consists of the "users" and their representatives who are themselves once again, users .

It is like the hedge is trying to gobble up the farm. The reps are elected to see to it that the freedom of the "users" are intact and in fact, taken to the next level. Not bringing it to an inferior level. When the goverment is talking about objetionable content or "A" user is talking about objectionable content, what is the percentage of the entire population of the world which are asking this?

The governments "represent" the users but are not "all" the users. People form governments and in reality they are users. In this context they are "users" of the public network. The public network is entirely based on "complete and un-adulterated democracy" which is impossible to visualize in the physical world. We users have to stand up to protect this deomcracy. The virtual world crosses all boundaries and unites the whole world as one "monster user base".

Google and related public service providers would not like this because, their model thrives on this philosophy of democracy of the virtual world crossing the frontiers of countries and continents, united by purpose, education, hobbies and many other things which are beyond my comprehension. The public network is based on the true principle of democracy "Of the people, by the people and for the people"

Let us see the stakeholders in this hue and cry about objectionable content

1. Large enterprises
2. Governments run by the large enterprises
3. One particular insatance of  large enterprises consisting of Media conglomerates.

1. Why do large enterprises objet to "objectionable" content.
   The answer lies in the open standards adopted in the public networks. People can cross the strongest firewalls and circumvent them if they are that much interested in coming out with the truth. And does it travel at speed over the public network. In no time, the value of the enterprise changes. If it is a positive news it will escalate otherwise ........  So, if they are given rights of filtering objectionable content, it will be removed in the first instance and the world will never know about it.

2. Goverments run by large enterprises are pawns of the humongous enterprises with more cash than all the money collected if all people pay their taxes properly. The explanation of the previous paragraph holds good. The goverments are PROs for these enterprises. They find it difficult to adjust to the changing times and technology. They are in no mood of learning. They will decide what the public will learn. With the public network enabling knowledge to the general public at their finger tips, they are now face to face with an educated public.

3. The way the public accesses media has changed the time napster clicked with the general public. The democratic network showed the media companies, the model in which they would like the media to be served. The public is bored of putting a CD into the reader just to listen to 7 songs. We dont want to go to the stores and rumagage to come out with our favorite music or movie or books. We still love our movies to be king size(Theatres will never go out of style). But if we want entertainment in our house we want it in the digital form served over the pubbic network, searchable, indexable and what not. Do we want it on CD/DVD/Blue ray/.../.../... NO. We want it served as a media file. But wait, serving movies would work only in the developed countries where the public is not happy with "4G". It will not work in countries where network speeds are pathetic. How do we like it there? We would like it to be provided with bit-torrent tech, so that we donload it and then watch it. Do we want it to be DRM'd, NO. We want it to share with our friends, my sister, my brother, my neighbour, my watchman etc.. Do we want to arrange and index the physical discs, NO. We want u to do it for us. Will we pay for the content, YES. But if u charge exhorbitantly then the public will find means to circumvent this also. With this attitude we are back to square one.

THERE IS NO OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT ON THE PUBLIC NETWORK. THE CONTENT IS WHAT THE PUBLIC WANTS. IT IS DEMOCRATIC AND PEOPLE HAVE THE FREEDOM TO "COMMENT". WE REQUEST ALL OUR REPS THROUGHT THE WORLD TO ALLOW THE PUBLIC NETWORK FREE OF "CENSORSHIP"

karen sandlers presentation at oscon

A very dangerous account of issues involving propreitory software. The presentation by karen sandler who has joined the GNOME foundation after leaving the software freedom law centre is simple and straight forward.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFZGpES-St8

I like the fact that Karen discussed more about the philosophy of FLOSS than the product which she was representing. All the people involved in FLOSS activities will always highlight that the concept and philosophy of "freedom" software is important than the software itself. Well, shed did like the beauty of the GNOME3 desktop( I also like the G3 desktop environment, except that it is treating power users and new users the same ). It indeed was very cheeky of her to mention that the majority of the attendees had a Mac. Did her speech make any effect on the attendees such that they would change their propreitory platform, My answer is NO. It is always better to attract newer developers and users towards the FLOSS ecosystem by teaching them the ethics of "freedom" before they learn any development or usage.

Karen and people like her( in such postions ) should spread the ethics of "freedomm" software. The byproduct of such a movement would definitely result in a world which would make people like karen, more comfortable and confident on technology.