We're not there yet, our network is relatively small and geeky, we're installing lots of antennas these days (we just did a bulk order of 25 ubnt bullets with 15dbi antennas, and aprox 10-12 nodes already running).

Most mesh routing protocols have features to limit bandwidth. It's also possible to control that on the exit node (those who provide Internet connectivity).

A fun thing about mesh networks: the more users you have, the more capacity there is (more nodes relaying traffic). The challenge is then on the exit nodes, and there's ways to control that. However, I think that as Byzantium is doing, we want to rely as much as possible on inter-mesh usage (apps that are "auto-discovery-happy" and decentralized).

For example, our wiki runs ikiwiki, which, thanks to its git backend, allows us to run multiple "master" instances.

oops, I meant: babeld or batman-adv

Seriously? In a flood, earthquake or political uprising, you food, water and shelter, obviously, but you will need communications too.

That's like saying we shouldn't focus on software freedom because there is still lots of hunger in the world, dictators and corporate overlords running wild. We do what we do because we're good at it.

So what are you up to? :)

Why not simply flip your WiFi port from 'infrastructure' to 'ad-hoc'?

In regular ad-hoc, you can see the people around you, but not reach their neighbours (there is no routing by default). Byzantium uses babeld, which is a routing layer over an "ad hoc" mode. The mesh network automatically recalculates routes, depending on their signal and link saturation. If you're into networking, it's really trivial to setup and lots of fun (especially with ipv6, although ipv4 works too of course).

We're building a mesh network in Montreal, putting antennas on our roofs or windows. It's impressive what can be done with OpenWRT running babeld or babeld, and 100$ or less worth of hardware. Also a nice way to connect various free software hacking groups, and.. neighbours. http://wiki.reseaulibre.ca/

Check out also: http://freenetworkfoundation.org/

If you think that's creepy, checkout:
http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/elections-quebec-2012/carte-du-financement-politique-au-quebec/

Since 2011, any amount over 200$ was made public by the organisation overseeing elections. Since 2012 all amounts are public. This is (in part) to counter corporate fraud. Companies are not allowed to donate directly to political parties, so they ask their employees to do so.

Here are two PCB sellers in HK who ship overseas:
http://www.onepcbsolution.com/
http://www.hkmingdi.com/enindex.asp

I found them off the forum of this site:
http://www.deadharddrive.com/

I wrote a short post about it in French, you can probably run it in google-translate. It took me a bit of time to figure out the PCB number on my Seagate drive, which is on the PCB, but on the side facing the disk, so I had to unscrew it to obtain it. (both HK sites were helpful and responded to my e-mails in good English).
http://www.bidon.ca/fr/random/2011-04-12-disque-dur-ressuscite

As the GP, I once had a burnt component on a PCB of a hard disk. I changed it using the *exact* model of the disk, and it worked. The disk was 100$ for a 500GB off eBay, which is a bit expensive, but afterwards I had a brand new disk to keep (I put the PCB back on the new disk once I finished retrieving the data). The seller on eBay provided the complete serial number in order to make it easy to find the correct replacement disk.

There are also companies in Hong Kong that specialize in selling replacement PCBs. It's much cheaper, but bigger delays.

I guess I shouldn't feed the trollls.. but :

I could survive with a phone running Windows, or even Vax VMS. I just wouldn't use it as much and would be far less amusing, secure and providing less freedom. Anyway, it's just a gadget, and one in decline, I'd argue.

(I, for one, would welcome a VMS smart phone. If Microsoft did it, why not VMS?)

I don't know for the OP, but many of us still cling to our aging Nokia N900 running Maemo. Easy to hack/play, free as in freedom, based on Debian.

That doesn't seem to me like a particularly good example. The reporter is being a dick and in most other languages this sort of behavior would have been classified as "undefined".

Last week I was in a in a small village 2h north of San Francisco. The hotel had broken ipv4/NAT (using 200.200.200.1/32 for the internal network), but perfectly functionnal IPv6 (using Comcast).

Most ISPs already have an IPv6 deployment plan. Most north american ISPs already ship wifi/dsl routers to their customers, so they will just switch the router at some point. No big deal really.

(my home/office networks/ISPs/websites are already ipv6)

Agreed. Private cord banks are pure scam, abusing of vulnerable parents who do not want to take any risks ("a small price to pay for peace of mind").

Public cord banks, on the other hand, save lives. Stem cells can be taken from a donor, not just from umbelical cords. Hema Quebec is a good example of an efficient public bank, imho.

Not to mention that it is unlikely that a single umbelical cord would be enough to save a life. A person under 50kg may require up to the equivalent of 3 or 4 umbelical cords. (ref, in french)

Your examples are a bit odd. RedHat seems to be doing fine, and more CentOS users means a bigger potential market for RedHat. There are a lot of success stories of free software communities that seem to be doing fine.

Although MySQL is in a weird spot now, the way it evolved is impressive. Also note that MySQL folks use to explain the dual-license as: "if you make money, then so do I". i.e. if your program is proprietary, no problem, you can link with MySQL, but then pay a licence fee. It was a good model for MySQL, imho.

I'm a developer and contribute/adapt/deploy fundraising and member management solutions that are completely GPL (CiviCRM and Drupal). Any patch I do for my clients, I publish it online, or put in more billable time to get the patch into the original program. My clients understand that they now have a choice of consultants and find it wonderful that we are a ton of people who understand this code. They are more autonomous, can do more stuff, and usually at less cost.

Anyway, the quote from Monthy seems really out of context. Afaik, Stallman finds proprietary software immoral, not profit. The argument is usually made that making money from proprietary software, while it may feed your family, causes harm to others. I don't see how making profit from free software would be an issue.

This said, imho, everyone has to do some compromises in order to survive, but more people succeed than you think.