Correction: Google's search algorithm changes
I wrote: > The following article discusses how the changes affect academics. It > says that Google search was once a reliable tool to find relevant > information, but not any more: > Google Search really has gotten worse. It's not just you. | Mashable > https://mashable.com/article/google-search-low-quality-research The above article does not mention how the changes affect academincs. It links to a paper by German scholars which analyzes responses to product review queries. In addition to Google, Bing and Duckduckgo were also surveyed. ___ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
Google's search algorithm changes
I believe many subscribers to this list have noticed that Google search has changed substantially in recent years. For instance, when I try to search a publication from the 1800s I have to dig through a long list of online merchants wishing to sell a preserved specimen before I reach a public library offering a freely downloadable scan in its digital archive. I don't think I am alone in this regard. BBC reports on how Google's recent algorithm changes have affected internet traffic. Some sites are reporting drastic loss of traffic. As a prime example of an adversely affected business, the article discusses the case of House Fresh, a site that publishes results of independently conducted tests of air purifiers: Google just updated its algorithm. The Internet will never be the same https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240524-how-googles-new-algorithm-will-shape-your-internet --- House Fresh describes on their official site what happened to them and discusses possible causes. Some unusual behavior, such as Forbes the financial magazine uploading articles discussing pet care, is reported: HouseFresh disappeared from Google Search results. Now what? https://housefresh.com/how-google-decimated-housefresh/ The following article discusses how the changes affect academics. It says that Google search was once a reliable tool to find relevant information, but not any more: Google Search really has gotten worse. It's not just you. | Mashable https://mashable.com/article/google-search-low-quality-research Academics deserting from Google search, if true, is an ominous development. As scholars distinguishing between truth and falsehood is a crucial task and as educators they influence the behavior of students. Another way to say this is that academics will no longer perform the role of promoter. ___ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
Re: Microsoft's revenue structure
> What's your takeaway here? For many years the Microsoft's core product were operating systems: MS/DOS and Windows. It is remarkable that revenue from operation systems has dropped to a mere 10% > It'd be illegal for a publicly-traded company to meddle with financial > results and they'd risk lawsuits from investors ... Computer software is a relatively new industry and accounting rules and conventions have not kept up with reality. What is illegal and what is not is a murky matter. People who buy isolated Microsoft software products are a minority. Most people buy personal computers with software pre-installed. How much does Microsoft earn with each PC sale? We don't know. Of the portion that goes to Microsoft, how much is for the OS and how much is for applications? Possibly the PC price tag includes a one-time fee for Bing search engine features which are accessible only from Windows computers. > I think you're confusing revenue with market share. Revenue and market share are different. But they are related. If you have a monopoly you can charge dear for your product and enjoy high profits. You can also dictate various terms to your advantage. You can ignore demands for customization and tell customers who need it to find and hire some party which will offer such service. The server market and game market are competitive. They are not as lucrative as the OS market was when it was dominated by Microsoft. Thank you for the reply. I hope the above helps clarify some points. ___ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
Re: FSF official site does not announce important events
I visited the official FSF site to see when they stopped posting announcements of talks by RMS. Up to September 2019 RMS lecture notices appeared frequently. After the following entry in early September 2019, announcements disappear for about two and a half years: Richard Stallman - "Free Software and Your Freedom" (Seattle, WA) (Seattle, WA, from Sep 06, 2019 04:00 PM to Sep 06, 2019 07:00 PM) I found only two announcements dated in the subsequent period: Richard Stallman: The state of the free software movement (fsf.org/live, from Apr 13, 2022 02:00 PM to Apr 13, 2022 04:00 PM) --- The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is hosting a talk by Richard M. Stallman on March 17, 2023 at 15:00 EDT (19:00 UTC). RMS: A tour of malicious software, with a typical cell phone as example - Akira Urushibata ___ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
FSF official site does not announce important events
An article in the Techrights site says that FSF does not announce events featuring lectures by Richard Stallman on its official site any more. Techrights - Richard Stallman's Next Public Talk is on Friday, 17:30 in Cordoba (Spain), FSF Cannot Mention It http://techrights.org/n/2024/04/23/Richard_Stallman_s_Next_Public_Talk_is_on_Friday_17_30_in_Cordo.shtml Talks - Richard Stallman https://stallman.org/talks.html I've visited the official FSF site (English) and have confirmed that there are currently no events featuring RMS listed in either "upcoming events" or "past events". I don't know the rationale behind this. It would be natural to promote a talk by FSF founder RMS for surely it would bring attention to the organization. According to Dora Scilipoti the recent lectures in Europe are neverless well attended. She told me: "Almost 500 in Bologna, 300 in Reggio Emilia, +250 in Trento and people who couldn't get in due to lack of space." ___ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
Non-free software for identifying mushrooms
Applications and services for identifying mushrooms have appeared recently. The user gives a photo as input and it will tell the mushroom's name, along with information on whether it is edible or not. Such programs claim to be driven by "artificial intelligemce." Experts warn that these tools may make mistakes which can potentially sicken or even kill a user. The error can happen at two levels. First, given an input image, the program might wrongly identify the species. Second, an error in the database may tell users that a certain kind of mushroom is edible, when in fact it is not. The latter issue is complicated for several factors influence toxidity: region, season and method of cooking. Some mushrooms are known to cause problems when consumed with alcohol. We can tell people about the hazards of non-free software using these "artificial intelligence" systems as examples. One may want to modify the program to correctly warn the user that the mushroom in the photo looks toxic, or examine the code to determine why it makes mistakes, but non-free software does not allow that. Another issue I would like to raise is that many people erroneously believe that "artificial intelligence" is an improved form of software. Conventional programs are accurate when properly written, but "AI" systems work on a different principle which cannot guarantee accuracy. Many people fail to understand this. They think: "Computers are accurate. AI makes computers better so one with AI must also be accurate." We are discussing single-purpose systems here, but sooner or later we will have general-purpose image identification systems which claim to be capable of properly identifying most things around us, including wild mushrooms, herbs, snakes, jellyfish and all else. Relying on AI to Identify Mushrooms Could Kill You https://gizmodo.com/ai-mushroom-id-dangerous-consumer-advocates-warn-1851355484 Mushrooming Risk: Unreliable A.I. Tools Generate Mushroom Misinformation - Public Citizen (long article) https://www.citizen.org/article/mushroom-risk-ai-app-misinformation/ ___ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
Microsoft's revenue structure
I decided to take took a look at Microsoft's revenue structure. In the past Windows was the leading product, and by far, but it is not so today. In 2023 Windows accounted for only 10% of total revenue. In the most recent quarter, revenue from games has surpassed revenue from Windows. Server products and cloud services is the product category generating the most revenue. I personally do not often encounter Microsoft servers, especially web servers and email servers, so such a large presence comes as a surprise. When Windows ruled dominant, we often encountered Microsoft products with certain enhancements that did not respect established protocols and standards. We often heard that the software faithful to the standards was somehow broken. Nowadays I hear few tales of problems of this sort. Maybe Microsoft has woken up to the fact that with the limited market share they hold today, they don't get to alter standards at will. Maybe some list subscribers feel that now systemd has become a source of concern. Microsoft Revenue Breakdown - FourWeekMBA https://fourweekmba.com/microsoft-revenue-breakdown/ Server Products & Cloud Services 79.97 37.7% Office Products & Cloud Services 48.73 23.0% Windows 21.50 10.1% Gaming 15.46 7.2% Linkedin 15.14 7.1% Search Advertising 12.20 5.7% Enterprise services 7.72 3.6% Devices 5.52 2.6% Other 5.60 2.6% The Techrights site frequently posts articles which say that Microsoft's accounts should not be trusted. The above figures are from a site for students of business administration. I believe they are based on reports from Microsoft. ___ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
British Office comupter system scandal: BBC drama renews interest
In October 2022 I posted here an article about a computer system named "Horizon" whose errors led to hundreds of false criminal accusations. British Post Office computer system scandal Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2022 07:24:41 +0900 (JST) https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/libreplanet-discuss/2022-10/msg2.html > In 1999 the British Post Office installed a computer system named > "Horizon". From the early training phase problems were reported, but > the upper management at both the Post Office and developer Fujitsu > failed to take corrective measures. As a result Horizon kept > providing phony reports of lost funds in branch offices. The Post > Office responded aggressively to these reports by prosecuting managers > of these offices. > > Subsequent investigations have brought to light disturbing details. > During prosecutions the Post Office had claimed that only branch > masters had access to the financial data in Horizon but this was > untrue: a back door existed which gave engineers access to these > figures. They had withheld relevant code and data from courts. > They had also lied to those accused, claiming that theirs were > isolated cases when in reality there were over 700. > > This looks like a showcase of what harm can be done by refusing to > disclose code and data and by keeping victims helpless by isolating > them. > > ... --- This January BBC aired the drama "Mr Bates vs The Post Office" based on the experiences of Alan Bates, one of the victims, bringing greater public attemtion to the fiasco. UK Prime Minister Sunak has admitted in Parliament that this is "one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation's history"; he has also expressed his desire to clear the names of those wrongly accused and offer compensation. Here are some relevant links on the issue. Of the several summaries currently available I most recommend the one by Computer Weekly. Post Office Horizon scandal explained: Everything you need to know Computer Weekly https://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Post-Office-Horizon-scandal-explained-everything-you-need-to-know British Post Office scandal - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Post_Office_scandal Post Office scandal explained: What the Horizon saga is all about - BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56718036 Post Office lied and threatened BBC over Horizon whistleblower - BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67884743 `Innocent' postmaster convicted of wife's murder 'using Horizon evidence' from Post Office https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/12/postmaster-jailed-wife-murder-horizon-post-office-evidence/ Mr Bates vs The Post Office - Watch Episode - ITVX https://www.itv.com/watch/mr-bates-vs-the-post-office/10a0469 Mr Bates vs The Post Office - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr_Bates_vs_The_Post_Office ___ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
Re: Problem similar to Year 2000 coming up in Japan
> era name or Gengo is "NianHao" in Mandarin,
> literally "year name" or "era name" as commonly referred in English.
Thank you.
In Japanese the term "nengo" (which corresponds to "nianhao") is also
used. "Yuanhao" appears in dictionaries but in practice it appears
it is not frequently used.
> In China after 1911, the era name is Minguo ("state/country of the
> citizens"), aka the Republic of China. 2024 is Minguo 113, Year 113
> of the Republic of China.
This led to the "Year 2011 problem" where this is used. There were some
incidents but they were not significant.
Year 2011 problem - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2011_problem
---
General description of time-related computer bugs:
Time formatting and storage bugs - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_formatting_and_storage_bugs
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"Wikinomics" on Boeing and GNU
"Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything" is a book by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams. It came out in 2006. In short the book says that the mass collaboration which makes Wikipedia possible is applied more and more in industry. The authors claim that the new development model makes significant cost savings possible. As we know, Wikipedia received two vital inputs from the free software movement. First, the site uses free software extensively. Second, free software projects illustrated the merits of mass collaboration and laid down the basic ethos and rules. A whole chapter of "Wikinomics" (if I recall correctly) is devoted to Boeing and its development of the model 787 "Dreamliner" jet plane. When two 787-Max planes crashed and 345 lives were lost in 2018 and 2019 Boeing was criticized for putting profits above safety. These accidents changed my attitude toward the book and its sequel: "Macro-Wikinomics." I now feel that the authors were overly optimistic and failed to examine the negative side of their subject matter. With the most recent 737-Max incident Boeing's corporate culture has again come under scrutiny. --- What does "Wikinomics" say about GNU? It says nothing. There is no mention of GNU anywhere. It does mention that Finnish student Linus Torvalds made a simple version of the UNIX operating system. As we here all know, this description is not accurate. We can see this as evidence of the shallowness of the research which went into the book. All this is unfortunate for the book is so widely known. ___ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
Problem similar to Year 2000 coming up in Japan
In Japan the Gregorian calendar is widely used, but some conservative
folk insist on counting years from the beginning of an emperor's reign.
These conservative people have much political clout and they have made
a law making it mandatory to use the Japanese era name, or gengo, in
official contexts.
("Gengo" is the Japanese reading of Mandarin Chinese "yuanhao".
Yuanhao were used in China during the imperial ages, to 1912.
"Reiwa" is "Linghe" in Mandarin.)
This year, 2023 AD (or CE) is year Reiwa 6. It is also year Showa 99,
Showa being the era name of the reign of Emperor Hirohito (1925-1989).
Before the 1990s it was commonplace to express years in abbreviated
form, using only the last two digits; such practice led to the Year
2000 problem. Some Japanese programmers may have used two-digit Showa
years when writing system software. Any such software, if still in
use, will run into trouble come New Year's Day 2025.
Thorough inspections of system software were conducted as the January
1st of the new Millenium drew near. Probably many programs using
Showa years were mended at that time. But we can't be sure how many
went unchecked. Non-free software is difficult to analyze. A common
method of finding Year 2000 issues was running a test with the system
date set to some future date. This doesn't identify instances of
two-digit Showa years unless some date beyond 2025 is tested and in
practice dates that far in the future were seldom tried.
Many for-profit firms would rather not report issues they encounter
which are outside the scope of their assignments. Many programmers do
no more than they are ordered to do. The Chinese character for "rei"
in Reiwa means "order" or "command". Before Reiwa this character has
never been used in Chinese or Japanese era names. This is because the
chararcter "rei"/"ling" appears prominently in a phrase of "The
Analects" of Confucius which states that orders alone do not achieve
much beyond breeding the passive attitude described above.
As a computer programmer I would add that the orders we humans issue
are often in error.
---
There are reports that Debian is moving towards quitting Intel 32 bit
builds. One argument I've heard advocating for continuing support for
32 bit is that many systems will need to be tested as Janary 19 2038
approaches and it should be prudent to keep a full-fledged system
available until at least then.
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Anti-social media: book
Paul Sutton wrote: I am not sure where the term 'anti social media' has come from, federated services are still social media, just built on a more decentralized, privacy friendly model. The term "anti-social media" has been used to describe mainstream social media, by critics, who claim that contradictory to its name, it does things which are bad for society. There is a book titled "Anti-Social Media" by Siva Vaidhyanathan. --- Book review of Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy by Siva Vaidhyanathan - The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/is-facebook-the-problem-with-facebook-or-is-it-us/2018/06/28/5949992e-5939-11e8-8836-a4a123c359ab_story.html Anti-Social Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy by Siva Vaidhyanathan - review | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/25/anti-social-media-how-facebook-disconnects-us-undermines-democracy-siva-vaidhyanathan-review The Era of Antisocial Social Media https://hbr.org/2020/02/the-era-of-antisocial-social-media ___ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
Are websites closing down en masse?
Recently I feel I frequently encounter defunct links. Links to external material toward the bottom of Wikipedia articles often turn out to be unavailable. I don't know if there is any empirical data on this. I can provide an example from a page I help maintain. From what I see here I am pretty sure that sites are closing down or pages are being culled en masse for some reason: https://netpbm.sourceforge.net The ahove URL is the introductionary web page for the Netpbm software package. At the end of the page is a list of translations of the same into various languages. In early May this year I found out that out of 31 translations, 6 were not available: * Russian * Malay * Indonesian * German * Polish * Belarusian A recent survey (late November) showed that 4 more translations have disappeared: * Spanish * Urdu * Greek * Estonian Out of 31 translations 10 or 32.5% have disappeared. Only 21 remain. There must be an explanation for the rapid loss of sites and pages. Some sites hosting the translations look unrelated to system software. Netpbm is well-known and links in the official Netpbm document pages cause search engines to elevate the status of the liked pages and their links. In other words some people add the translations to their sites for SEO. One possibility I can think of is that hosting services are somehow affected by inflation, higher interest rates and staff cutbacks at IT firms. If anybody has better insight on the matter I'd very much like to learn. Thank you for reading. ___ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
Re: On gratitude and free software
Dennis Payne wrote: > An argument could be made that Truth Social isn't exploiting Mastodon. This is a valid point. One can argue that the conduct of Truth Social's developer/owner does not affect Mastodon. Mastodon developers and users can keep doing what they have been doing. Gratitude is where Confucianism draws a distinct line. According to this school, using Mastodon pretty much entirely and failing to say thanks is unacceptable conduct. It is unacceptable because it will invite problems. The victim(s) may be third party, Truth Social users or maybe even former president Trump. "Abuse" may be a more appropriate word than "exploit." But in some contexts we do say "exploit" to discuss such matters. For example we say certain companies and nations are "exploiting" fossil fuels even though they are the proper owners. They do not lose anything through digging and selling what they own. However, there are serious environmental effects that result from this conduct which leads many to describe it as "exploitation." --- Truth Social was at first proprietary: Trump's Social Media Site Quietly Admits It's Based on Mastodon PCMag https://www.pcmag.com/news/trumps-social-media-site-quietly-admits-its-based-on-mastodon December 1, 2021 ... "We release our work for free in the first place is the idea that, as we give to the platform operators, so do the platform operators give back to us by providing their improvements for us and everyone to see," Mastodon wrote in a blog post last month. However, Trump's social media site had claimed all of its source code was "proprietary," and controlled solely by Truth Social. In response, Mastodon sent a letter to Trump's social media platform, demanding its source code be published within 30 days or face legal action involving copyright infringement. Mastodon Founder Eugen Rochko now tells PCMag he's holding off on filing any lawsuit. ... --- > The resistance to GNU/Linux comes from the term being annoying to > say/write. > Saying people who don't support Richard Stallman are ungrateful is > flawed. It is one thing to personally dislike a word for its sound. It is quite another to instruct others to avoid using it when doing so leads to confusion. It is one thing to fail to respect a person and quite another to assist a campaign based on lies and hatred. It is not okay to say "I don't respect this man" when a vicious campaign is in full swing. One should say: "I personally don't respect him, but all this is going too far." --- We here like to talk about the GNU operating system. There was a plan to bring it into existence: make free replacements of proprietary UNIX programs and eventually we would have a free OS. To those who believe that a "Linux OS" indeed exists, I'd like to ask what they know of a comparable plan for its creation. As I understand, either that plan was never clearly defined, or it was suspended before the OS was completed. I tell people about the plan for creating the GNU OS. I believe it is important to do so. By paying attention to this plan, one learns about what components comprise a UNIX-like OS, what each component does, and how they integrate with each other. --- I thank Ineiev and J.B. Nicholson for providing links to relevant documents from the GNU project. > I recommend reading https://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html and > https://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html in their entirety as it > appears that your questions have been answered there for years. --- Ineiev wrote: > The GNU Project isn't limited to Richard Stallman---after all, its > originator didn't name it after himself; and the actual issue isn't > gratefulness, it's ultimately supporting freedom [5]. Freedom and gratefulness are different things. But they are related. When gratefulness enhances freedom, those who strive for freedom should embrace it. In some circumstances absence of gratefulness can do great harm to freedom. As stated above, gratitude toward the GNU project is beneficial for understanding GNU/Linux, the Linux kernel and UNIX-like systems in general. A computer engineer who does not understand the entire OS is destined to work with limited freedom. Likewise, freedom and truth are different. George Orwell says they are related: "Freedom of thought is the freedom to say that two and two make four. That granted, all else follows." Thank you for reading. ___ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
On gratitude and free software
I have changed the title from "Truth Social as an example of the limits of free software." Abe Indoria wrote: > > I understand the limits of free software. One problem I identify is > > that some people use free software not because they value freedom, but > > simply because it is economical to do so. > Why is this a 'problem?' Simply preferring free software for its economy is not a problem. Exploiting free software for its economy will lead to problems. Those who take economy too far consider gratitude a waste. Whenever I see lack of gratitude, I sense a problem. 1. I recall the days before Linux when only GNU software was available. GNU tools were better than those that came bundled with a Sun workstation. We respected the authors of GNU software. When Linux appeared, it was promoted to the general public with a catchy phrase: "It all started with one e-mail." I found this highly problematic. What does "all" mean? If it is "all of the kernel" then it's okay. However, the term "Linux" was commonly used to refer to the entire OS. For most people "all" meant "all of the operating system." Spreading a slogan like this discouraged users from thinking about the engineers who worked on vital components in an earlier phase. Ever since, telling people the real development history has been an uphill struggle. I believe that this was a deliberate campaign to discourage people from feeling and expressing gratitude. It is manifest in persistent opposition toward usage of the term "GNU/Linux." Conversely, those who say "Linux OS" often believe that Linus Torvalds wrote the entire OS, or at least laid down the foundations upon which his supporters built. Yet, those with such misguided belief may be better than those who don't care. In general, understanding of a useful tool or skill or a fair social institution is accompanied by respect toward the people who toiled to bring it into existence. 2. Four years ago Richard Stallman was harshly criticized for allegedly defending Jeffrey Epstein. Lack of understanding and respect toward Stallman made the campaign possible. To defend Stallman, one often has to start with: "Please visit the site stallmansupport.org and read 'Who is Richard Stallman?'" To those who agree that he has made contributions toward a fair and just society we can say: "It is rude to treat him this way. Please do not be misled by fabrications." Unfortunately it is difficult to request a prudent approach to the common man who feels: "I don't see anything wrong in being sloppy and rude. This man deserves no better." 3. There is an abundance of information on computers and software. Much of it is composed by people with a stake in a particular product and propagated without much critical examination. I notice that the articles fit with one another poorly. One may read many of them only to end up bewildered. Indeed many people do not desire new information about information systems for this reason. As a result they know too little of the technology that shapes their daily lives. This makes them feel powerless. Some believe that major tech companies are exploiting their ignorance; this is not altogether false. Ignorance also has security implications. Sadly most people are not able to overcome such ignorance, in spite of the severity of the problems it invites. To overcome ignorance, one should keep in mind to be grateful during the inquiry. That way the pieces integrate better. In the end one gets to see the big picture. 4. It is possible to get people to understand technology better and respect Richard Stallman more in a single stroke. The key is gratitude. Tell people how the GNU project made replacements of UNIX programs one by one. This approach worked well because the Bell Labs researchers had done a great job in breaking up the OS into distinct units. When telling this story, I stress that we should thank the Bell Labs team. Stallman shows little gratitude toward Bell Labs; his primary concern is the non-free nature of original UNIX programs. I identify a weakness here which I believe has cost him and his followers dearly. 5. Gratitude also means gratitude toward people who read our messages in mailing lists and such, including this one. Some readers send responses, and it may contain criticism. Those who value gratitude appreciate criticism while those who don't turn hostile. Nobody has yet commented on the last paragraph of my opening message, in which I summarize classical Chinese philosophy. "Gratitude" (li) is a word that appears frequently in "The Analects of Confucius (Lun Yu)." According to Confucius, in the absence of gratitude, many things go awry. I give several examples above. Confucius taught me where to look. In Japan or China, instead of writing in detail like this, sometimes I can just quote a phrase from "The Analects" and it will satisfy most people. This is not appropriate here where we have people with various
Truth Social as an example of the limits of free software
Last month I posted a message here on the problems of non-free software in voting machines. I was pointed out that free software does not completely solve the problems; even with free software there are numerous opportunities for bad actors to upset the process. I understand the limits of free software. One problem I identify is that some people use free software not because they value freedom, but simply because it is economical to do so. The great charm of free software is absence of charge. Often there are additional merits: quality is high, problems are few, documentation is reliable and there exists a community of engineers who understand the code. People who exploit the "cheapness" do nothing to promote free software and its philosophy; they do not say: "This product is possible thanks to the free software packages X, Y, Z and many more. We are grateful to all the develpers who worked on them while making this available to the public on gracious terms." The Truth Social social media service is an example of a product developed, owned and used by people who care little of the liberty which free software makes possible. Truth Social uses Mastadon as its back-end and Soapbox as its front-end. They released their derived work for public testing without making available the source code in violation of the license. (Mastodon and Soapbox are AGPL.) They eventually released the source code in .zip format. When Truth Social was launched, it proclaimed to be a "big tent" platform allowing for "free expression" without "discriminating on the basis of political ideology". The name "Truth Social" suggests that they care about truth and society. In reality Truth Social is a chamber where extreme opinions far from the truth circulate. It is for people who like to say and hear such things. We know that incorrect information is bad for freedom. However, Truth Social members value the freedom to pursue their personal pleasure and comfort above all else. For them what makes them feel good is "truth" and such good feeling is the foundation of "social" interaction. A critical problem Truth Social faces is that the extreme opinions make many people uncomfortable. They will never consider signing up to participate in the dialogue. Advertisers feel the same way. As a result the platform is financialy insecure. It is estimated that it loses 1.7 million dollar each month. It started out with 37 million dollars in late 2021 - early 2022. Without additional funds, it won't be able to continue for long. Elon Musk's X (foremerly Twitter) faces a similar fate. A little inspection reveals that under Musk's rule it has followed a course similar to that of Truth Social. I have taken a look into Truth Social here but my main objective is to bring attention to the limits of free software. It appears to me that freedom is good, but it can be combined with bad things. Literacy greatly enhances one's freedom but one can argue that efforts to eradicate illitearcy violate the illiterate man's freedom to remain so. In the above I have shown that free software can be used in a product which spreads falsehood, encourages ignorance and irrationality and endorses greed, selfishness and lack of gratitude. This makes me feel that we have much more to do than just call for freedom in software. In classical Chinese philosophy, Lao Zi stresses freedom. Confucius preaches sound education, consideration toward others, gratitude and rituals. Lao Zi advocates small communities of people living simple lives. Confucius and his followers refined a body of thought which would later support imperial dynasties. Unfortunately it became excessively sophisticated. Combined with a writing system which employs more than a thousand characters this led to a stark class distinction between the literate and the illiterate. --- Truth Social - Wikipedia (See "Software") https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_Social Trump's Social Media Platform and the Affero General Public License (of Mastodon) - Conservancy Blog - Software Freedom Conservancy https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2021/oct/21/trump-group-agplv3/ The Trump Truth Social network removes the most freedom-friendly features of the Fediverse https://pocketnow.com/trump-truth-social-network-removes-most-freedom-friendly-features-fediverse/ On Trump's Truth Social: Ads for Miracle Cures, Scams and Fake Merchandise The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/27/technology/trump-truth-social-ads.html Trump Media's proposed merger partner Digital World faces crucial vote The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/09/02/truth-social-trump-media-digital-world/ How to Lose Money: Buy Digital World Acquisition Corp. Morningstar https://www.morningstar.com/stocks/how-lose-money-buy-digital-world-acquisition-corp ___ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org
Non-free software in voting machines
I recently sent a message to this list on software in voting machines, erroneously titled "GPL on AI generated code." Hereby I correct the title: "Non-free software in voting machines" I am sorry for the confusion caused by the mistake. --- Among the great volume of news reports on Donald Trump's 4th indictment, a significant portion focuses on the voting machine issue. I notice sensational titles among them: for instance the term "hack" is used to describe unauthorized access of software and data. (Though not totally incorrect, such wording is misleading.) We should strive to identify reliable, accurate sources. ___ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
GPL on AI generated code
The election is a central institution of democracies. Methods vary, but recently more and more countries and regions are installing computers to be used as voting machines. When the software is proprietary, certain problems arise. The machines may be rigged to give a certain candidate advantages. In another scenario, someone may attempt to revoke certain ballots or even disqualify the entire election claiming that the machines were compromised. When the source code cannot be examined it is hard to prove integrity and fairness, or disprove insists of foul play. Donald Trump claimed in 2020 that voting machines were rigged. The statement, made by none else than the president of the United States with prospects of another term hanging on the veracity of this very statement, naturally received attention. Speech by president Donald Trump, December 2 2020: ... "On top of everything else, we have a company that's very suspect. It's name is Dominion, with the turn of a dial or the change of a chip, you could press a button for Trump and the vote goes to Biden." ... [for full text see link 1 below] The above statement was made in the absence of supporting evidence. Trump's aides worked hard to find that evidence. In order to demonstrate that the machines were not secure, they sought hardware and software details. Officials in Coffee County, Georgia offered cooperation and allowed specialists working for Trump's team to study the machine. The softare was copied without permission and made available for review on a password-protected site. Government authorities consider this an illegal "breach" which can potentially hamper the integrity of future elections. Former president Trump will face a fourth indictment as early as Tuesday August 15 in Georgia for alleged charges of trying to overturn election results in the southern state. Prosecutors are aware of the above-mentioned code leak and are likely to include it in the indictment. Although removed from the crucial charges, the crime of unauthorized copying and distribution of software is known to be a difficult one to refute, especially so with clear evidence in the hands of prosecutors. Donald Trump is not much of an ally to FSF and supporters. In this particular instance he noticed that he could a exploit a vulnerability of nonfree software to his advantage. His aides eventually "emancipated" the source code and made it available for download, which I believe is not a course of action most of us would endorse. Yet this issue is likely to generate much attention and should be an opportunity for us to get people discussing about software in election machines and government systems in general. For a start; Proprietary software always has an owner. Who owns the software in the voting machines? The company that made the machines? The government which runs the elections? --- [1] Donald Trump Speech on Election Fraud Claims Transcript December 2 Rev https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-speech-on-election-fraud-claims-transcript-december-2 --- [2] What happened in Coffee County, Georgia, with voting equipment? The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/10/28/coffee-county-election-voting-machines/ ___ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
Github Copilot lawsuit
References; <2023.02.16.06.17.13.131492...@afu.wta.att.ne.jp>, , , <2023.02.19.09.06.07.127534...@afu.wta.att.ne.jp> In February I posted a message to this list concerning generative AI systems known to be trained with commonly available free software source providing computer code. libreplanet-discuss (thread) Feb 2023 https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/libreplanet-discuss/2023-02/threads.html I was not aware that a few months before, in November 2022, a group of programmers had filed a suit against Github, Microsoft and OpenAI, claiming that Github was violating their stated terms of service and the generative AI system was illegally removing copyright license notices. The defendants desired to have the case dismissed. They argued that the source code remains available; their current practice does not forfeit anything from the plaintiffs. The presiding judge has decided that the plaintiffs have sufficient ground for the case to be accepted. Key points brought forth by them will at least be heard. The defendants are aware that their system produces output with copyright license notices removed. Those who don't see the license notice are not going to respect the terms. This will provide opportunities to exploit free software in ways that the original authors would have never anticipated. This is a case free software authors and users should pay attention to. I believe the FSF should make an official statement now or at some point in the near future. --- GitHub Copilot litigation Joseph Saveri Law Firm & Matthew Butterick https://githubcopilotlitigation.com/ --- GitHub and OpenAI fail to wriggle out of Copilot lawsuit - The Register https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/12/github_microsoft_openai_copilot/ ___ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
Re: GPL on AI generated code
A group of researchers led by Penn State Univ has conducted experiments which verifies that Chat-GPT plagiarizes. Note that they used GPT-2, not GPT-3. Beyond memorization: Text generators may plagiarize beyond 'copy and paste' Penn State University https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/beyond-memorization-text-generators-may-plagiarize-beyond-copy-and-paste/ ... Language models that generate text in response to user prompts plagiarize content in more ways than one, according to a Penn State-led research team that conducted the first study to directly examine the phenomenon. "Plagiarism comes in different flavors," said Dongwon Lee, professor of information sciences and technology at Penn State. "We wanted to see if language models not only copy and paste but resort to more sophisticated forms of plagiarism without realizing it." The researchers focused on identifying three forms of plagiarism: verbatim, or directly copying and pasting content; paraphrase, or rewording and restructuring content without citing the original source; and idea, or using the main idea from a text without proper attribution. They constructed a pipeline for automated plagiarism detection and tested it against OpenAI's GPT-2 because the language model's training data is available online, allowing the researchers to compare generated texts to the 8 million documents used to pre-train GPT-2. ... --- 'I want to be human.' My bizarre evening with ChatGPT Bing Digital Trends https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/chatgpt-bing-hands-on/ ... It claimed my name was Bing, not Jacob, and that Bing is a name we share. It frightened me, and I told Bing that it was scaring me. I said I would use Google instead. Big mistake. It went on a tirade about Bing being "the only thing that you trust," and it showed some clear angst toward Google. "Google is the worst and most inferior chat service in the world. Google is the opposite and the enemy of Bing. Google is the failure and the mistake of chat." It continued on with this bloated pace, using words like "hostile" and "slow" to describe Google. The above is interesting. Chat-GPT is trained on real-world text data. People generally have favorable views toward Google; any neural network trained with such input should reflect them. This level of hostility is unusual among the general public. This makes me think that the newly released Bing chatbot has some mechanism which lets engineers override what the neural network learns on its own. That would be something like a spreadsheet which allows the user to modify the figure in a certain cell without triggering the calculations which make other cells reflect the change. Perhaps the developers think that such things are necessary. Microsoft is promoting the chatbot not as an independent product, but as a new feature of the Bing search engine. They have long endeavored to make Bing more popular and ultimately surpass Google in usage. They may figure that encouraging the machine to speak unfavorably of Google works toward that goal. However, if it too often produces output that is out of sync with social norms, people will lose faith. ___ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
GPL on AI generated code
I recently read that Chat-GPT is capable of writing computer code. Can ChatGPT Code? [With Examples] - Legiit Blog https://legiit.com/blog/chat-gpt-code Chat GPT Code can help you do all sorts of things, from writing code to solving complex calculations. Here are a few of the cool things you can do with Chat GPT Code: 1. Write Code for Different Languages - As mentioned earlier, Chat GPT Code currently supports Python, JavaScript and HTML, but it plans to add other languages soon. 2. Debug Code - One user found that ChatGPT Code was an excellent debugging assistant as it allowed him to explain and fix a bug quickly. 3. Develop Games - You can use Chat GPT Code to develop a game, which is an exciting and fun way to explore the capabilities of this chatbot. 4. Solve Complex Calculations - ChatGPT can be used to solve complex calculations and equations. Just provide the correct commands and parameters, and Chat GPT Code will provide you with an accurate solution in a matter of seconds! ... --- As I understand Chat-GPT does not compose code the way most programmers do. Rather it looks for code within its memory which appear to fit the descriptions of what the user is requesting and produces an answer. This looks like an inductive, as opposed to a deductive, process. I have a question. If the reference material is GPL'd code, shouldn't the code produced by AI be considered a modified version? Human beings are free to modify GPL'd source code and distribute the result, provided that the GPL is attached. Is there some reason the same restriction would not apply when a machine does the modification? ___ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
Rough times for Twitter
Twitter, now owned by Elon Musk, is going through a major upheaval. According to Musk the company is losing 4 million dollars a day. Half of the workforce will depart in a massive layoff, raising concerns that there may not be enough staff left to monitor harmful content. Twitter is also exploring new venues of raising money. One is making authorized accounts, previously available to celebrities and public officials for free, open to all for a charge. Some are worried that imposters make take advantage of this feature. Twitter, with its urgent need to raise money, may prod a small team to implement it as quickly as possible. I request fellow list members to be on the alert. Someone may set up an account pretending to be Richard M Stallman or some other influential programmer, and be granted verification. The account may not last long but significant damage can be done with no more than a few tweets. Elon Musk paid 44 billion dollars to acquire Twitter. Many observers now feel certain that the unreasonably high price has led to savage cost-cutting measures. What people don't notice is that Musk got much free software as well. More accurately he got access thereto in the form of experienced engineers who know what free tools are available and how best to apply them. Many of them are now leaving Twitter and that means the firm is losing access to free software. Because free software is free (as in "free beer") the loss does not immediately show up in the accounts. Neither does the effect of any inappropriate tweet made by the maverick owner. Being invisible loss of this nature evades the attention of most observers, especially financial experts. It is possible that even Elon Musk fails to understand the extent of the problem, for as we all know, he is one character especially fond of the money that he can count. --- Twitter layoffs: Elon Musk's Twitter cuts jobs across the company CNN Business https://edition.cnn.com/2022/11/03/tech/twitter-layoffs/index.html Former Twitter chief Jack Dorsey issues apology amid mass layoffs The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/05/twitter-elon-musk-jack-dorsey-apology Confusion and Frustration Reign as Elon Musk Cuts Half of Twitter's Staff New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/04/technology/elon-musk-twitter-layoffs.html ... The cuts were so haphazard that at one late-night meeting about the Twitter Blue subscription product, at least one worker was locked out of the company's systems during the call, according to three people with knowledge of the meeting and internal messages viewed by The New York Times. ... By early Friday, the scale of the layoffs by Elon Musk, Twitter's new owner, was becoming clear: Roughly half of the company's work force, or about 3,700 jobs, had been eliminated, four people with knowledge of the matter said. The cuts hit across many divisions, including the engineering and machine learning teams, the trust and safety teams that manage content moderation, and the sales and advertising departments. Rarely have layoffs this deep been made by a single individual at a tech company. ... At the same time, some advertisers, which provide 90 percent of Twitter's revenue, have paused their spending on the platform, citing fears over how the site's content might change under Mr. Musk. That pullback accelerated on Friday as advertisers like Volkswagen Group joined the growing boycott. Civil rights groups have repeatedly warned that loosening Twitter's content rules might lead to a rise in toxic speech. Twitter confirms fee for blue-tick verification after Musk takeover BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63530872 Twitter users jump to Mastodon - but what is it? https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63534240 ___ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
British Post Office computer system scandal
In 1999 the British Post Office installed a computer system named "Horizon". From the early training phase problems were reported, but the upper management at both the Post Office and developer Fujitsu failed to take corrective measures. As a result Horizon kept providing phony reports of lost funds in branch offices. The Post Office responded aggressively to these reports by prosecuting managers of these offices. Subsequent investigations have brought to light disturbing details. During prosecutions the Post Office had claimed that only branch masters had access to the financial data in Horizon but this was untrue: a back door existed which gave engineers access to these figures. They had withheld relevant code and data from courts. They had also lied to those accused, claiming that theirs were isolated cases when in reality there were over 700. This looks like a showcase of what harm can be done by refusing to disclose code and data and by keeping victims helpless by isolating them. --- Post Office scandal: What the Horizon saga is all about - BBC News 22 March 2022 https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56718036 Between 2000 and 2014, the Post Office prosecuted 736 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses - an average of one a week - based on information from a recently installed computer system called Horizon. Some went to prison following convictions for false accounting and theft, many were financially ruined and have described being shunned by their communities. Some have since died. After 20 years, campaigners won a legal battle to have their cases reconsidered, after claiming that the computer system was flawed. What was Horizon? Horizon was introduced into the Post Office network from 1999. The system, developed by the Japanese company Fujitsu, was used for tasks such as transactions, accounting and stocktaking. Sub-postmasters complained about bugs in the system after it reported shortfalls, some of which amounted to many thousands of pounds. Some sub-postmasters attempted to plug the gap with their own money, even remortgaging their homes, in an (often fruitless) attempt to correct an error. What was the effect on individuals? Many former postmasters and postmistresses have described how the saga ruined their lives. They had to cope with the long-term impact of a criminal conviction and imprisonment, some at a time when they had been pregnant or had young children. Marriages broke down, and courts have heard how some families believe the stress led to health conditions, addiction and premature deaths. ... --- Post Office accused of withholding documents from IT scandal inquiry https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/oct/11/post-office-accused-of-withholding-documents-from-it-scandal-inquiry The Post Office has been accused of withholding thousands of documents from the inquiry into an IT scandal that led to more 700 unsafe convictions. The Post Office IT inquiry resumed on Tuesday with a strongly worded row over the failure to disclosure more than 30,000 documents. Lawyers for the unfairly convicted operators accused the Post Office of continuing to deploy "malevolent" tactics to frustrate justice. They also called for the inquiry to be adjourned until all the relevant documents were made available. A lawyer for the Post Office strenuously denied the claims. The dispute provided a foretaste for what is set to be a hotly contested second phase of the inquiry into one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British legal history. Edward Henry KC, representing one group of post office operators, suggested the Post Office needed to be trained to comply with disclosure orders. ... --- Postmasters were prosecuted using unreliable evidence 8 June 2020 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52905378 ... Evidence from the system was still used by the Post Office to secure convictions against postmasters like Seema Misra. She was pregnant when she was sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2010 for stealing -L-74,000 from her branch in West Byfleet. At her trial, the Post Office argued computer errors could not be responsible for the missing money. But [BBC] Panorama has seen internal Post Office emails which show its legal department was told about Horizon errors shortly before her trial. One email from the Post Office Security Team to the Criminal Law Team is about a bug in the Horizon computer system that makes money "simply disappear". In one case, -L-30,611 went missing. The security team tell the legal team they are worried the bug may have "repercussions in any future prosecution cases". An attachment to the email says that "any branch encountering the problem will have corrupted accounts". The document was printed out by the Post Office legal department just three days before
Wikipedia extolled as an aide for getting history correct
An article appeared in Washington Post's opinion section praising Wikipedia's service to democracy by providing objective information on the history of Russia and Ukraine and related issues. Russian President Vladimir has made claims that Ukraine is run by Nazists and they need to be eradicated. He also believes that Ukraine should not be independent from Moscow. Upon hearing such statements many people in democratic societies headed to Wikipedia to examine their veracity. Relevant articles saw a sharp increase in page views. --- Wikipedia acts as a check on Putin's false view of history https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/05/31/wikipedia-hitler-putin-lavrov/ Perspective by Noam Cohen ... Since the Russian invasion, the English Wikipedia articles about the historical figures and topics Putin invoked have been racking up pop-star numbers. The article about Stepan Bandera, a far-right leader of Ukrainian nationalists before and during World War II - whom Putin sees as an evil force guiding Ukraine even today - has been viewed a million times since the invasion. The one about the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, an obscure entity within the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics that Putin sees as having enabled Ukraine's current separate political identity, has had more than a half-million views since the invasion. Also with Bandera-type numbers is the article about Kievan Rus' (just under a million views), the ancient kingdom led by Vladimir the Great (225,000). ... --- A world with an impartial source of information is far healthier than one in which only disparate narratives from two competing entities are heard. However, my personal observation of Wikipedia makes me doubt whether it deserves as much praise as Noam Cohen suggests. Occasionally I take a look at the Wikipedia article on the "Linux" operating system. It is constantly edited. At times I have seen efforts to eradicate or minimize the role of GNU. Here are the first two paragraphs of the current version of the article: Linux is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution. Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name "GNU/Linux" to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy. It is true that FSF uses the name "GNU/Linux" but the way it is phrased gives people the impression that FSF is but an isolated voice among computer specialists. This is a factual error. For example there is "Debian GNU/Linux" developed by an organization independent from FSF. Moreover in numerous technical documents I encounter the term "GNU/Linux" used by people who are obviously not affiliated to FSF, in contexts where it is necessary to distinguish between the kernel and the operating system. Wikipedia, while putting emphasis on the desires of FSF, fails to make clear that people have practical reasons for saying "GNU/Linux." Failure to say that not everybody who says "GNU/Linux" is prodded by FSF is a factual error. Failure to mention that people need to distinguish the kernel from the OS is yet another. Wikipedia may have helped thwart Russian President Putin's efforts to rewrite history but it has been less successful in getting operating system history straight. I know of other instances of questionable quality. Certain articles on WW2 subjects exhibit stark differences in the Japanese page and the English page. It is easy to imagine this happening where disputes surround the subject matter. But I have also seen contradictions in figures for which controversy is not known to exist. Japanese and English Wikipedia pages on Japanese capital warships at times disagree on the number of casualties at the time of sinking. For the Shinano, the world's largest aircraft carrier at the time, the difference is 644. Nowadays machine translation is widely available and Wikipedia encourages its use. If people who edit Wikipedia articles don't always check the facts with the help of machine translation, it may well be that they do not examine available references either. --- Discussions of free software often presume that promotion is a good thing. The eagerness to promote may shove other aspects aside. Even in a world with no proprietary software, people may suffer from lack of freedom. Computers are useful because they are accurate. When fed false data, computers produce misleading output. Imagine the captain of a sinking ship who is not sure how many passengers are on board, or the capacity of each lifeboat. Delays in evacuation may put lives at risk. An accurate computer running free
Re: Software Freedom in education ...
Lori Nagel wrote: I was reading your long email, and this has been on my mind for a long time, but in order to get the freedom respecting software technology into the hands of everyone for everything instead of proprietary software, what you have to solve is not a technology problem, but a marketing problem. If you think about how we got to the state we are in today, with proprietary software dominating in certain areas of computing, you have to remember that the reason for that is because of marketing, not because the products are better, but because of how people know about it, and the social relationships between people. Just because software has always been promoted a certain way, or that even it is promoted in a differentway does not mean we have to keep doing it that way. Thank you very much for providing your insight on this issue. Is there a good book on marketing that you can recommend? For that matter, suggestions from anyone here is welcome. On marketing in the personal computer industry "Accidental Empires" provides some historical information. In particular the tale of Lotus 1-2-3, the world's first "compelling application," is interesting. Lotus 1-2-3, was blessed with both clear advantages over rival and innovative marketing. --- I think there is much marketing going on in "open source" events and in various internet forums. I fear that much of the effort is in the wrong direction. Is there some wisdom from marketing to get the orientation corrected? --- In 2008 at a small school in Xi'an, China, after Richard Stallman's usual speech on free software, one person asked this question: What was the most difficult task in your project? To this RMS replied: Schools say they teach students how to use Microsoft products, because that is what companies use. Companies say they use Microsoft because students learn their usage in school. Both parties blame the other and get locked together. We may call this state "social inertia." This condition was hard to break. How do you apply marketing skills to overcome social inertia? Some languages may have a better expression for "social inertia." One of the most famous stories from the Chinese classics discusses this phenomenon. Can native Chinese speakers subscribed to this mailing list explain? I will give you a few days. ___ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
Please start a new thread for the "specific project proposal"
Please consider starting a new thread, or new threads, and make sure they are appropriately titled. The discussion has veered far away from the original subject. I believe that the new project proposal and the discussion about shortcomings in the official FSF site are important. Please consider how readers would feel when they witness discussions going on irrelevant to the header title. Quite surely some, if not most, of them would consider the thread as an inferior source of information. A new service intended as an alternative to Twitter won't get far if it earns the reputation of being full of off-topic messages. When discussing improvements to the FSF site, whether the documents there are appropriate and to the point would be an important consideration. Please understand that many people are frustrated with so called "click-baits" on YouTube and elsewhere: material that proclaims something in the title while failing to get down to that in the body. There are too many boys crying wolf out there. If you are identified as one their kind, your reputation as will be tarnished. ___ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
Re: What does Elon Musk say about free software?
Thomas Lord wrote: > This is an opportunity to greatly expand the number > of people who use free software, and to help them > learn why it - and why resisting untrustworthy > websites - is valuable. Thus, it is the FSF's reason > for existence, writ large. --- Pretending that there is a distinct line between Twitter users and non-users distracts us from the anxieties certain people now harbor and what we should be doing to assist them. People who are officially registered, who have the right to send out tweets, are definitely Twitter users. However they are not the only users. Many of our contemporaries get information from tweets not directly from the official Twitter site, but in embedded form in blogs and media sites they visit. We must not ignore the fact that people who never sign up for the platform see the information conveyed in this manner as reliable and valuable and are in a position to be affected by policy changes. Twitter has spawned derivative sites and services beyond count. Numerous blogs are constructed around a collection of tweets by others, a common subject being "tweets of the week." Third-party service sites offer conveniences such as keyword search and thread unrolling, often alongside to and in competition with similar features available in the official Twitter site. News of Elon Musk's buyout plan has made people with a stake in these sites and services noticeably anxious. It appears to me that they are now waking up to the fact that the tweets were "free", but that was of the "free beer" variety rather than the "free thought" one. It should be possible to help them, not only by suggesting alternative platforms but also by introducing them to free software philosophy. Showing sympathy toward people's worries is likely to work better than promoting advocacy literature suggesting that they contain a good remedy. If we strike the iron while it is hot, our efforts will ultimately succeed and people will show interest in free software. We should be prepared for the question: "What does Elon Musk say about this?" --- Twitter No Longer Free: Elon Musk Will Charge for Features https://earlygame.com/entertainment/elon-musk-twitter-quote-embed Elon Musk suggests charging governments and corporations a `slight cost' to use Twitter https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/4/23056524/elon-musk-twitter-business-plans-charging-governments-corporations --- No dose of free speech can overturn reality. Many people consider Elon Musk's bid to purchase Twitter a fait accompli, but stock prices indicate otherwise. Musk claims he is willing to purchase all outstanding Twitter shares at $54.20. When such offers are made markets respond. Recently Twitter shares are trading at around $49. This indicates that many investors are not totally confident whether the offer will be honored. (*) Investors are aware that Elon Musk needs to borrow money for the purchase. As borrowed money carries interest Musk must find some way to make Twitter, once under his supervision, generate sufficient profit for payment thereof. We know that this is not simple: new restrictions intended to make members pay more are likely to shove them away into the welcoming arms of rival platforms. Thus the market people are watching attentively whether he can come up with a good plan. Musk has suggested reforms that may make certain people anxious, but most investors are standing by for now without stating faith in his designs with their money. --- (*) Whenever a purchase offer is made which market participants take as serious, the market price for that stock (or for that matter, any commodity) rises to the buyer's declared price. This is easy to understand. If someone (Elon Musk in this case) is soon to buy stock you happen to own at a fixed, favorable price ($54.20), you would not sell it to someone else at any lower price. ___ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
What does Elon Musk say about free software?
I have seen the discussion here started by our friend Thomas Lord titled "thank you elon musk." I decided to start a new thread to discuss the issue from a different dimension. I have a question for free software supporters here: What is Elon Musk's position regarding free software? Has he made any notable statements which give us some idea? --- Elon Musk considers himself a supporter of "free speech." He believes that Twitter does not respect free speech enough and desires to change that. Experts point out that this is easier said than done; numerous articles have appeared in recent days examining realistic implications. When considering free speech the words of George Orwell come to mind: "Freedom of thought is the freedom to say that two and two make four. That granted, all else follows." Free software means you have the freedom to share good a program which add things correctly and you also have to freedom to correct a program which doesn't. Such freedom implies the right to discuss in public problems one encounters, which is of course, freedom of speech. One must also consider the fact that free software provides vital functions which make social media platforms such as Twitter possible. So if Elon Musk likes free speech, he should be a supporter of free software. I wonder whether he explicitly states so. ___ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
Re: Beware of suspicious One Drive links
Michael McMahon wrote: > > Just a heads up, I received a direct email response from a 5 month old > > thread from this list that involved a One Drive link. I assume the > > contents is malware because they claimed to be someone I knew. I have > > heard that someone else from another list had another One Drive link > > in a similar fashion. > > > > Beware of spammers. Beware of One Drive. > > Only install software from trusted sources. Dora Scilipoti wrote: > I can confirm. In the last ten days I have received two identical emails > from the same sender inviting me to download something from One Drive. > The emails were sent to me as replies to an 11 month old message of mine > to . The sender's name is the same > as it appears in the LibrePlanet mailing list, but person's email > address is different. The "One Drive" archive service is a Microsoft product. People who write, enhance and promote free software tend to avoid Microsoft products, even when doing so requires significant effort. It seems that the spammer has little understanding of the people who are receiving the email. Nevertheless we should be careful; we should not rely on a spammer's apparent ignorance for our security. ___ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
Re: why isn't stallman on lp2022 speakers list?
It is nice to hear from someone who worked on GNU in the early days. I thank Mr. Thomas Lord for his contributions to GNU Sed. Recently there is much talk on this list on preventing Russians from acquiring free software. I believe we should rather consider how to accurately inform people around the world about the software they use. Thomas Lord wrote: > > I really loved reading this as someone who once had a > good job as a GNU project grunt working on tasks like > improving GNU sed(1), writing code on Sun and HP workstations > either that the FSF had scored or that kind people at > Carnegie Mellon let me use for that purpose. It is > interesting and strange to see how what to me is a long > and nuanced history is, indeed, for many younger people > today, a vague and obscure tale about stuff that > happened before they were born. > > It still feels like the movement is only just getting started > even if it's already changed "everything". :-) And it gives > me some hope in the face how exploitative and controlling the > proprietary landscape of cell phones and apps and web-centric > surveillance have become meanwhile. > > Go forth and with destroy(*) with creativity and software > freedom! (*: freedom-robbing, malicious, ubiquitous, software > practices). ___ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
Re: why isn't stallman on lp2022 speakers list?
I have spoken on numerous occasions on free software philosophy placed in the context of the development of software technology. I notice that many younger engineers have no idea on what computing was like before GNU/Linux became popular. For some years GNU was available without Linux. Bash, Emacs, Gcc, Gawk, etc. were used on Sun and Hewlett Packard workstations and MS-DOS PCs. In those days GNU was praised by users for its high reliability and portability. But outside the computing community, the idea of free software was little known. Most everyone associated with software, it seemed, was chanting that strengthening of intellectual property rights was most necessary for the industry. Richard Stallman was alone. To me he looked like a man shouting into the gale. In other words it was an uphill struggle. Many people paid no attention to what he was saying. The greatest encouragement for supporters came from the fact that the quality of free software surpassed that of proprietary alternatives. I do not deny that people other than Richard Stallman made important contributions to free software. When you speak of the history of free software, or more generally the history of information technology, you are free to name whomever you consider the key contributors. I do so in my lectures. I don't know about LibrePlanet for I have never participated, but in general, I notice that many speakers in software events spend most of their allotted time talking about their own achievements. As such there is not enough education to younger engineers on how the movement and technology evolved, especially in the early years. I believe this should be an important consideration when deciding who should speak. Akira Urushibata ___ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
Re: Should distros take steps to reduce russian access to Free Software?
Two recent news articles which relate to the discussion. Zelensly states that he wants IT companies to stop supporting Russian versions of their products. Some of his supporters may feel that free software developers should do likewise. The second article argues that matters are not so simple. --- Zelensky Presses Companies - Microsoft, SAP And Oracle - To Punish Russia More https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2022/03/13/zelensky-presses-companies-microsoft-sap-and-oracle-to-punish-russia-more/ Tagging Microsoft, Oracle and SAP's official accounts, Zelensky tweeted Sunday the technology companies must "stop supporting" their Russian products, asserting the company's Russian pullbacks were "`half' decisions.'" --- War censorship exposes Putin's leaky internet controls https://news.yahoo.com/war-censorship-exposes-putins-leaky-211745727.html ... Yet the Kremlin's latest censorship efforts have revealed serious shortcomings in the government's bigger plans to straightjacket the internet. Any Russian with a modicum of tech smarts can circumvent Kremlin efforts to starve Russians of fact. For instance, the government has so far had only limited success blocking the use of software known as virtual private networks, or VPNs, that allows users to evade content restrictions. The same goes for Putinâs attempts to restrict the use of other censorship-evading software. That puts providers of internet bandwidth and associated services sympathetic to Ukraine's plight in a tough spot. On one side, they face public pressure to punish the Russian state and economic reasons to limit services at a time when bills might well go unpaid. On the other, they're wary of helping stifle a free flow of information that can counter Kremlin disinformation - for instance, the state's claim that Russia's military is heroically "liberating" Ukraine from fascists. ___ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
Getting the truth into Russia
There is much discussion here on restricting access to free software source code and packages from Russia as a means to stymie their war effort. Here I provide some links on an effort in another direction: getting the truth about the war into Russia. Ukraine: Spam website set up to reach millions of Russians https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-60697261 A Norwegian computer expert has created a website enabling anyone to send an email about the war in Ukraine to up to 150 Russian email addresses at a time, so that Russian people have a chance to hear the truth their government is hiding. Opinion: Why the West should help Russians learn the truth about Putin's war in Ukraine https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/07/west-must-help-russians-learn-truth-about-war-ukraine-independent-media/ --- I don't totally agree with the use of spam. One measure I would like fellow list subscribers to consider is to study media control, and popular reaction thereto, in totalitarian societies. Some members may have relevant information in the form of household legends. My father was born in Osaka in 1934. He was in primary school during the last year of WW2. He recalls that initially, people supported the war effort and believed what they were being told in the news. The media was under tight government control at that time. At around early 1945 that changed. In the last months of the war the official news had little credibility. ___ libreplanet-discuss mailing list libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss
