Radical media, politics and culture.

Technology

October 13, 2003 - 1:12am -- hydrarchist
Analysis & Polemic
Technology

hydrarchist writes:

"Freeing the Mind:


Free Software and the Death of Proprietary Culture"

Eben Moglen, June 29, 2003

The subject matter we're going to talk about is variously named, and
the words have some resonances of importance. I'm going to use the
phrase "Free Software" to describe this material and I'm going to
suggest to you that the choice of words is relevant. We are talking
not merely about a form of production or a system of industrial
relations, but also about the beginning of a social movement with
specific political goals which will characterize not only the
production of software in the twenty-first century, but the production
and distribution of culture generally. My purpose this morning is to
put that process in large enough context so that the significance of
free software can be seen beyond the changes in the software industry
alone.

September 8, 2003 - 9:06am -- jim
News
Technology

Anonymous Comrade submits :

"Santiago Dreaming"

Andy Beckett, The Guardian, September 8, 2003

When Pinochet's military overthrew the Chilean government 30 years ago,
they discovered a revolutionary communication system, a 'socialist
internet' connecting the whole country. Its creator? An eccentric
scientist from Surrey. Andy Beckett on the forgotten story of Stafford
Beer

During the early 70s, in the wealthy commuter backwater of West Byfleet in
Surrey, a small but rather remarkable experiment took place. In the
potting shed of a house called Firkins, a teenager named Simon Beer, using
bits of radios and pieces of pink and green cardboard, built a series of
electrical meters for measuring public opinion. His concept -- users of his
meters would turn a dial to indicate how happy or unhappy they were with
any political proposal -- was strange and ambitious enough. And it worked.
Yet what was even more jolting was his intended market: not Britain, but
Chile.

September 3, 2003 - 10:33am -- jim
News
Technology

"Iranonymity," says Bruce Sterling...

"US Sponsors Anonymiser - If You live in Iran"

Kevin Poulsen, SecurityFocus, TheRegister
 

A pact between the U.S. government and the electronic privacy company Anonymizer, Inc. is making the Internet a safer place for controversial websites and subversive opinions -- if you're Iranian.

Whole story: TheRegister
 

August 20, 2003 - 1:06pm -- hydrarchist
News
Technology

hydrarchist submits:

"This seems relevant for many reasons, be they the expectations of Lula, the venerated position occupied by Gil because of his cultural capital, and the emerging recognition of the importance of free software in modern productive forces."

Speech of the Brazilian Minister of Culture, Gilberto Gil, in the
seminar "Free Software and the Development of Brazil."

"On the Way to Digital Democracy"

Gilberto Gil, Brasilia, 19th August 2003


We must not ignore the fact that digital culture extends its network
over the whole planet, and is going through decisive moments in
terms both of transformative thought and of utopia.


It's enough to recall the contercultural achievement of the microcomputer.
The counterculture was responsible for bringing the computer from the
industrial-military complex into the space of personal use, breaking the
monopoly of IBM in the area of computing. The writer Pierre Levy spoke,
correctly, of the countercultural detour of high technology, a 'high-tech
DIY', among little defined underground groups, observing that 'a picturesque
community of Californian youth at the margins of the system invented the
personal computer'.

August 20, 2003 - 12:57pm -- hydrarchist
News
Technology

Anonymous Comrade submits:

SCO plans court attack on Linux GPL
By Matthew Broersma
ZDNet (UK)
August 15, 2003, 7:43 AM PT

SCO Group is planning to argue in its court battle against IBM that the General Public License (GPL) covering Linux and other open-source software is invalid, according to a report.

SCO, owner of several key copyrights related to the Unix operating system, has been aggressively defending its intellectual property holdings connected to Unix System V, and filed a $3 billion lawsuit against IBM earlier this year. The suit claims that IBM has committed trade-secret theft and breach of contract for allegedly copying proprietary Unix source code into its Linux-based products.

August 14, 2003 - 3:03pm -- jim
News
Technology

Anonymous Kumquat submits:

"USA Developing "Quasi-Nuclear" Gamma-Ray Weaponry"

David Hambling, New Scientist, 16th August 2003

An exotic kind of nuclear explosive being developed by the
US Department of Defense could blur the critical
distinction between conventional and nuclear weapons. The
work has also raised fears that weapons based on this
technology could trigger the next arms race.

August 14, 2003 - 12:06am -- nolympics
News
Technology


directvdefense

August 11, 2003 - 6:36pm -- jim
News
Technology

jim submits :


"Debian Celebrates Its 10th Birthday"

Martin Schulz

On August 16th, the Debian Project will celebrate its 10th birthday
with several parties around the globe. The Debian Project was
officially founded by Ian Murdock on August 16th, 1993. At that time,
the whole concept of a "distribution" of GNU/Linux was new. Ian
intended Debian to be a distribution which would be made openly, in
the spirit of Linux and GNU. The creation of Debian was sponsored by
the FSF's GNU project for one year.

August 2, 2003 - 2:59pm -- nolympics
News
Technology

nolympics writes


Karmabanque is a funny and informative site devoted to the propagation of destructive financial instruments by ordinary punters who would like to hurt deviant capitalist interests by encouraging and participating in the short selling of their stocks. This is essentially a way of betting (and so encouraging) that their stocks will decline in value. In theory this should force institutional investors to follow suit. Combined with boycotts of products (promoted by this bank), short selling is a means of punishing 'bad' market practices and registering this in markets. They encourage that any 'profits' be redistributed to countries and projects in need of diverted funds, while conceding that some should be pocketed for beer and pizza's.


Its also a great way of learning something about finanacial and stock markets hygenically.


fuck a company

July 26, 2003 - 2:27pm -- nolympics
Analysis & Polemic
Technology

Anonymous Comrade submits:


The following text was written on July 1st, 2003 and appeared on Giap #8, 4th Series, 07/15/2003. In the following weeks, the RIAA and a clique of Republican motherfuckers have prompted a further crackdown against file sharing and "piracy", perhaps the fiercest bombing blitz so far. Nevertheless, we believe that the record industry's "Shock & Awe" strategy is doomed to failure, no matter the casualties they inflict in the short term. Guerrilla warfare is the perpetual spanner in the works of the corporate war machine, and collective intelligence is already at work on more secure swap platforms. "Piracy" is a social thing, and it's already deeply rooted in contemporary behavior patterns. The bosses of corporate entertainment don't understand. Of course they don't: their brains no longer work; the more they get close to the trashcan of history, the more they get intoxicated by the stench.


"Lawrence of Arabia and the Fight Against Copyright"

Wu Ming 1, 01/07/2003


A few months ago Stampa Alternativa released a new booklet of their collection "Gli Euro" [The Euros: each booklet costs exactly 1 euro, t.n.]. It is a simple and agile text on guerrilla warfare which Sir Thomas Edward Lawrence (1888-1935, better known as "Lawrence of Arabia) wrote for the 14th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (first published in 1929).



Lawrence's explanation is both accurate and picturesque, and goes to the heart of the matter by reflecting on the Arab Revolt against the Turks (1916-1918), which Lawrence himself took part in instigating and directing on behalf of the British Empire.

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