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Submission + - diaspora* version 0.4.1.0 released (diasporafoundation.org) 1

Submitted by jaywink
jaywink writes: A new diaspora* version 0.4.1.0 is out. It includes a lot of pages ported to Bootstrap, many bug fixes and small enhancements. Also included is a Terms of Service -feature for podmins. Diaspora* is an open source social networking server that joins all running pods into one big decentralized social network.

Submission + - Latest US export: fracking around with local democracy in Poland (freelab.org.pl)

Submitted by rysiek
rysiek writes: The village of urawlów in eastern Poland has fertile soil and beautiful landscapes. It is also positioned directly above Poland's largest aquifiers. Soon another element will pop-up — fracking rigs, courtesy of Chevron.

For the past two years a small but dedicated community of people have opposed and protested Chevron's planned shale gas exploitation in the area, on the grounds of the environmental effects, including possible aquifier contaminations and damage to local landscape. Of course, they also support Exxon Mobil executive Rex Tillerson's fight against fracking rigs in his own back yard (Google Translate).

Chevron responds with legal action, with the support of local authorities. The protesters, who are so far quite effective in blocking Chevron's local activities, demand transparency the right to decide their own fate.

Submission + - Falkvinge: Engstrom, not Andersdotter, should be Swedish Pirates' #1 (piratar.is) 1

Submitted by rysiek
rysiek writes: Rick Falkvinge has weighed-in on whom should the Swedish Pirates place on the all important #1 place on the ballot: Christian Engstrom. Why?

The reason is simple: between him and the other candidate for the ballot’s top position, Christian is the only one funding my keynoting and evangelizing

So even among the Pirates, is it always about the money? This has not garnered too positive a response, especially in the light of the fact that the "other candidate" is Amelia Andersdotter who, as some would argue, does a better job. The heat is on, including a twitter conversation (and a Diaspora hashtag for the decentralites among you).

Submission + - At CopyCamp: Polish MEP proposes legalizing filesharing, remix (rys.io)

Submitted by rysiek
rysiek writes: When one of the biggest collection societies in Poland, Google, and Warsaw Hackerspace partner with a copyright reformist NGO to organize a conference with Eben Moglen as the keynote speaker and Jérémie Zimmermann following right behind, nobody expects a politician to be the actual star of the evening. Yet this is exactly what has happened few days ago at CopyCamp — where a Polish MEP, Pawel Zalewski, proposed no less than legalizing non-commercial filesharing and remix, with shortening the copyright term to 50 years as icing on the cake.

The details are scant and the proposal is still being worked on, to be presented in Brussels in November.

Comment Homo Corporaticus (Score 1) 356

by rysiek (#44939235) Attached to: California Elementary Schools To Test Anti-Piracy Curriculum
Let's not forget this little gem: Facebook is trying to get into classrooms as an educational tool. Not only will the childre learn from a RIAA-approved curriculum, they will use only corporate, closed walled gardens as their learning and social platform. They will not know a world outside corporate control. For decades here in the Central Europe there was a special name for the perfect Soviet citizen: Homo Sovieticus. Not only does the corporatocracy in the United States (and the rest of the world, increasingly) create a Homo Corporaticus, it creates it in the image of the Eastern counterpart. Oh, it would be so funny had it not been so sad.

Submission + - Has anyone succeeded with Akonadi? (rys.io) 2

Submitted by rysiek
rysiek writes: Development of KMail2 and Akonadi has been well underway for years now, yet it still seems far from achieving the level of usability and usefullness KMail 1.x had. Duplicate and lost e-mails, serious performance issues, migration problems and missing features prompt users to ask for being "saved" from Akonadi goodness and bloggers to warn about it.

With all major KDE-carrying distributions moving off of KMail 1.x and into the uncertain waters of KMail2, has anyone actually succeeded with Akonadi?

Submission + - PayPal freezes MailPile's account (mailpile.is) 1

Submitted by rysiek
rysiek writes: Remember MailPile the privacy-focused, community-funded FOSS webmail project with built-in GPG support? The good news is, the funding campaign is a success, with $135k raised (the goal was $100k). The bad news is, PayPal froze MailPile's account, along with $45k that was on it, and will not un-freeze it until MailPile team provides "an itemized budget and your development goal dates for your project" . One of the team members also noted: "Communications with PayPal have implied that they would use any excuse available to them to delay delivering as much of our cash as possible for as long as possible.". PayPal doesn't have a great track record as far as fund freezing is concerned — maybe it's high time to stop using PayPal?

Comment Re:No the shortest debate are these 4 words: (Score 1) 169

by rysiek (#44399805) Attached to: The Shortest Internet Censorship Debate Ever
No, that's the shortest argument against it. And while I appreciate the sentiment, it is quite important to keep the debate around this topic on a level that allows for technical, philosophical and economy-based arguments to be made, otherwise we land up in a mud slinging contest ("you're a coward!", "oh yeah? well you're a terrorist-paedophile!") that anti-censorship folk would probably lose.

Comment Re:Esoteric material? (Score 1) 329

by rysiek (#44399777) Attached to: UK ISP Filter Will Censor More Than Porn
It is beyond moronic and deceitful, but the general public will not see it that way. They will see "porn" in the same category as "terrorist content" and once they hear about a friend or relative "opting-out" of the filter, it will paint a picture for them. And somehow I am not convinced it's not by design. This is what we get when the unwashed masses get their information from Daily Mail and do not receive proper schooling in topics like democracy, personal freedoms, etc.

Comment Re:HOWTO debate censorship. (Score 1) 169

by rysiek (#44399341) Attached to: The Shortest Internet Censorship Debate Ever
I don't think this is really doable, because each and every time there is a fsckton of political stuff going on behind the scenes and political reasons to do or not do stuff. It is impossible to measure the real (vs. perceived due to political reasons that we do not know of) impact of any single argument. At least, that's my experience with this.

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