Clue time: There is no such thing as a "communist personality cult". There are, of course, people who claim that their particular personality cult is somehow communist. Like the North Korean elite. Or Stalin's bureaucrats. Or even misguided but honest-to-$NONEXISTENT_DEITY communists. That doesn't make it true, any more than that humans were brought to Earth by Xenu in DC-8s.
They've already used their 5 minute data allowance for this month.
At least the x86 Chromebooks have a developer switch, which lets you install whatever you want on it - so it really shouldn't be too hard.
This might very well be what I've been waiting for too (well, not this one in particular, but ARM Chromebooks generally). My wish list:
* decent screen (>= 1600x900, preferably IPS)
* at least 64GB flash (or user-upgradeable, either mSATA or just plain old 2.5")
* at least 2GB RAM (4GB and user-upgradeable would be better, but we'll probably have to wait another year or so for 64-bit ARM for that to be viable)
You can't carry atomic clocks in your pocket, they're a tad too big for that.
Actually, it seems you can. And even older generations weren't that huge - certainly too big to carry in your pocket, but not impossible to mount in a vehicle, aircraft or ship. E.g. this HP 5071A which can be yours for the bargain basement price of just $27.500.
So maybe some GPS receivers can indeed get a 3D fix with 3 satellites, when combined with (or including) an atomic clock.
So because one action operated outside of the law, we should give up on trying to influence the law. OK, I get where you are coming from now and understand why you are left wing.
I didn't say we should give up. Just that even "neutral" advocates will be ignored as long as their goals don't line up with significant corporate interests. Therefore I don't think appearing neutral should be paramount, I think other ways of trying to influence laws are more effective.
So tell me, if Europe decided that software patents were a good thing and some right wing governments wanted to make it law, would the opinion of software enthusiasts and advocates have more impact in this decision or would the opinion of left wing organizations crying about software freedom?
The European Patent Office has already decided that on its own, by granting thousands of software patents, openly disregarding the law (which says software is unpatentable). If you believe that "neutral" software freedom advocates have any real power to influence governments to act against the interests of capital, you're naive.
If governments were deciding to change their software, would FOSS be considered when it is seen as a political opposition group? As uncomfortable as it may be for you, the seemingly neutral advocates and enthusiasts would carry more weight in these decisions then groups of political opposition who are also interested in software.
On this I agree with you. If you only care about the number of Linux installs or some similar metric, appearing neutral will help. But I doubt that's all Stallman is after.
I took the op's statement to mean more that Stallman should not be conflating FOSS with outside political ideas like Gun control and so on. That has no place in in FOSS in my opinion. But if the "leaders" want to entangle FOSS with politics like that, they better be ready to accept the consequences of being relegated to just another political mouth piece when something important comes up.
What do you suppose he should do? Refrain from talking about politics? That's also a statement - an endorsement of the status quo. Politics just isn't a private matter, and treating it like one doesn't make you "ideology-free". It just means you're following the neoliberal ideology of pretending not to have one.
If you want to politicize Linux and Open Source Software, go right ahead.
Stallman doesn't care as much about Open Source as he does about Free Software. The differences can sometimes seem small, but I think the latter is inherently political, as is "hacker culture" in general.
If we get a right wing government anywhere in the world, should they automatically ignore the concerns of OSS because it is seen as a front group for left wing nutters?
As a "left wing nutter", I wouldn't have too much hope of a right wing government doing much of anything that benefits common (working class) people. I think trying to get them to pass "OSS-friendly" laws would be a futile endeavour.
As for qualifications, I would suggest the same thing qualifies him to speak out against stallman entangling political views with OSS as does qualify you to speak out against him for doing it. Stallman is not on some pedestal that make him irreproachable or uniquely off limits to criticism for his comments or stances.
Of course. But he seemed to suggest that since political topics have (in his opinion) nothing to do with Free Software, Stallman shouldn't talk about them. This just rubbed me the wrong way, similar to how whenever Chomsky says something political, there are those who claim that since his most well-known works are in linguistics, he should shut up because he's not "qualified" to talk about politics.
So Stallman isn't entitled to have an opinion on these subjects? Or is he just not allowed to voice it, whether asked or not? This is his personal website you're talking about.
Tell me, what qualifies you to say that campaign finance, gun rights, and minimum wage laws are none of Stallman's business?
I recommend you get rid of this Stalin fella in the next iteration. He's up to no good.
No whoosh replies, I know what I'm doing.
Funny you should say that. My recent studies have led me to the conclusion that being a vegetarian causes you to become a bad painter.
Da Vinci was a fine painter!
Wooosh.
You see, correlation does not imply causation. My post may have nothing to do with yours.
Because Apple would never approve malware in the app store? Right.
They don't have the source code to submitted apps, so they couldn't review it even if they wanted to.
Is there a better solution? The only thing I can think of would be to review both the hardware and and all software, either yourself or by a trusted 3rd party. As long as you allow untrusted programs (including, potentially, firmware and OS) access to the camera or sensors, there's no way around this.
It gonna be hard to keep your hand on the lens at all time, you could make the phone recognize big moves that correspondent closely to being taken out of the pocket. From there you may be able to get a few pictures every time its taken out. Also using the mic to recognize when somebody is talking in it gonna give you a good idea on when its being used and thus out of the pocket.
I guess you could get some data that way, but I doubt it would be very much. All these things (constantly making photos, trying to get a GPS fix, reading sensor/mic data) will suck power like mad. If my phone's battery suddenly only lasts 3 or 4 hours, I'm going to investigate what's going on. Uninstall recently installed apps, look what background processes are running, do a factory reset if nothing helps. Less technically inclined people would probably ask their nerd friends for help or take it to a shop.
If you gonna keep your phone in your pocket forever, fine, you won, but what use does it have?
While talking, you can just put your finger on the camera lens. When using it for something else, you can hold it in a way that your hand obscures the camera. And if you don't want to keep it in your pocket, just lay it on a flat surface. The main camera won't see anything, and the front camera will only see the ceiling.
Actually even that may not be enough. If you can have the locations figured out, that could possibly be enough to make a rough sketch of the house you live in. GPS and 3G locations, add them all together and you may be able to figure out the room layout, special locations like the toilet (even if you just want to annoy a person, figure out when he is on the toilet and then ring his doorbell), you could probably do a good guess on the bedroom (phone doesn't move for several hours?), kitchen (room repeatedly gone to around usual eating hours?).
Among other things like when you are out of house often.
Being able to aggregate lots of data on lots of people at the same time would be very nice as a criminal/government.
Of course, location tracking is scary in and on itself, but it's nothing new. GPS doesn't usually work in buildings unless you're next to a giant window, but they've been doing cell location tracking for a long time now. Most EU countries even save that data for 6 months under the data retention directive. Moral of the story: If you have reason to believe you're under surveillance, or think what you're doing might attract attention later, turn your phone off. Or just leave it at home.
Put your phone in your pocket when not using it. Problem solved.
Chemist who falls in acid is absorbed in work.
