Porém, o que muitos não sabem é a história de como tudo isso começou, em meados de 1991, quando Paul Ginsparg (sim, aquele já conhecido pelos férmions de Ginsparg-Wilson) deu início aos arXivs.

A entrevista abaixo é uma das poucas que o Ginsparg já deu, e é excelente, recheadas de 'causos':

• The global-village pioneers.

É importantíssimo também lembrar que sem o TeX, dado de presente e mão beijada para o mundo todo pelo Don Knuth, nada disso teria sido possível — o TeX é uma das primeiras linguagens de markup.

Outro ingrediente importante foi a criação da WWW por Tim Berners-Lee. Como o próprio Ginsparg conta na entrevista, TBL o contactou pessoalmente… e assim os arXivs foram levados dum servidor de FTP para um de WWW… e assim surgiu o primeiro, :!: , servidor da web no mundo!

Bom, essa é a história do Acesso Livre, não só no mundo, mas no Brasil também… que, como vcs vêm, tem tido uma participação bem sólida nisso tudo. :smile:

[]'s.

However, when I was reading the packet I saw the following, "Engineered not to shred or break during use. The Same Fiber Used To Make Bulletproof Vests." Now, I'm all for  the string not breaking or shredding when I'm using it...but do we really need the same fiber that is used to make bulletproof vests? Do the other bullet-prone fibers not work? I've used the non-bulletproof flossers before and they have never broke on me; they worked just fine. Can I make my own bulletproof vest out of this material? Is there such a surplus of bulletproof fiber that we needed to find another use for it?

Honestly, I'm a little concerned. Is the material used for bulletproof vests so cheap and inexpensive that we can buy a whole bunch of bullet-proof strings for under three dollars. At this rate, how much would it cost to make my own bulletproof vest? Twenty bucks? How safe are our bulletproof vests if the material is so cheap? I think our local police departments should know that their equipment is being made from the same materials as dental flossers. Or are the cops using their vests to help keep their gums clean? Is this the government's way of saving money...by taking dental plans away from police officers and giving them dual-purpose dental hygienic vests?

I can see the advertisements now: "Plackers Micro-Mint Dental Floss...Save Your Gums and Lives!" Or "Helps Fight Cavity and Crime at the Same Time (for the hip-hop jingle). Maybe that's the target market: Rappers with the gold teeth who are trying to protect their mouths while flossing (Hat-tip to Jack for the suggestion). Since 50 Cent has been shot in the mouth numerous times, the marketers figured rappers can use a floss that will help protect them from bullets. I'm just saying...

Este projecto já chegou a algumas conclusões segundo o linux insider, a adopção de FLOSS está a crescer rápidamente, embora mais rápido na Europa que nos EUA, mais de 300.000 pacotes e projectos de instalação FLOSS estão em uso por todo o mundo.
O censos também permitiu concluir que o OpenOffice.org se encontra instalado em cerca de 73% dos computadores pessoais abrangidos por este censos, embora apenas 28% das máquinas empresariais estivessem disponíveis para realizá-lo.

Em média as agências governamentais que participaram do censos têm cerca de 123 pacotes de FLOSS instalados por máquina.

Ubuntu é a distro mais usada, cerca de 46%, Suse Linux has 12 percent, Gentoo Linux has 7 percent,
Fedora Core has 6 percent and Debian has 13 percent.

Mais uma vez se mostra a força de uma distro não comercial, a Debian, que em conjunto com a sua descendente Ubuntu, detém 59%.

O censos mostra ainda que existe um sólido movimento por parte dos governos na adopção e implementação de FLOSS, infelizmente e mais uma vez Portugal com os célebres memorandos vai ficando cada vez mais afastada da realidade.

O projecto vai entrar no seu segundo ano.

Mais info no site do projecto.

{via Linux Insider}

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Ava, this weekend was your 2nd birthday. I didn't have any money so for your gift, I had a slumber party with you. We had so much fun. You were scratching your ear at one point and I said, "What are you doing, do you have bugs in your ear?" And so the rest of the night you would grab your ear and talk about bugs. It was funny. This morning I took you to Northgate, the church we are attending these days. You were so good. I held you as we listened to the music. You were so well behaved, one of the pastors came over afterward to comment on how good you were! You were so much fun to hang out with.

Oh, sorry I got soap in your eye when I was helping you take a shower. You didn't like that.

Humph. Today's story.  A lesson. Humph. Man, there are so many things I want to tell you girls! I don't know where to start! I want to tell you all about why you should listen to your parents, why you should save your money, why you should wear your seatbelt, floss, wear sunscreen, follow your passion....

Really girls, the list goes on and on. It is just so difficult because every generation decides to not take the advice of parents - and decides to learn the hard way. If you just take the advice of your parents or the other people that love you, you'll be ahead of your peers by so many years! I mean, if you can listen to us, you'll own your own home in your early twenties. Your Dad bought his first house at 21!  That is a big deal!

If you can save money like we tell you and NEVER EVER EVER EVER use credit cards... you will retire when your 40. And THAT is young. Some people live their whole lives "paycheck to paycheck". That means, when they are paid, the money is kinda already spoken for. It has to go to rent or bills. These people never get to save, then they end up HAVING to WORK until they just physically can't anymore.  You do not want this. At age 40 - you want to take all the money you saved and DO WHAT YOU WANT. Even if what you want - is to work more (because your work WILL BE your PASSION...find something you love and work WILL BE PLAY!)

Save your damn money girls! Aunt Bre (me) was not good at that. I got into some credit card debt for a while. It was almost $10,000 for a bit!  Now, I am down to $699! I am doing GREAT at getting rid of that - but seriously, I have had to put EVERYTHING into fixing that. The interest was so high. I will never use a credit card again. I haven't for about 2 years now.

But I think the most important thing that I mentioned in this blog - is about passion.

PASSION. Each of you has something you "have to do". Let's see if I can explain this. Your Mom - she HAS TO CLEAN. When ever she had a job anywhere, doing hair, being a cashier at Wilson Farms, she always was known for her cleaning. If there were no customers - she would start cleaning when the other workers would stand around.

That is what I mean when I tell you  - there is something you "have to do". Me? I would go to work - then come home and sit on the computer, I would look at art. I would build and rebuild my MySpace page. I also have to hike, I get outside as much as I can. I also have to clean... ALMOST as much as your Mom. I found a way to use all of these things in my current work. Web and Graphic Design. I can't believe it took me 10 years to find out that this is my passion!! It was in front of my face all along that this is what I should do!

I swear, your Mom, she'll eventually open a cleaning business. And you know what... those ladies make good money! Why? No one wants to clean their house!

So please, get to know YOURSELF, notice what you HAVE TO DO, what is your PASSION. You will be happiest AND make the most money if you get to go to work and feel like you are PLAYING!!!! God, girls, I thank God that I found this work that I do. The other jobs I had, they sucked the life out of me. I am still "tweaking" this job now, but when you are new to something, you make some sacrifices. By the time you two read this, I am pretty sure I will be ROCKIN' the Web and Graphic Design. There are a lot of avenues I could take.

I love you monkeys so much! Please, always be good to yourselves, THINK about what is best for you. Don't ever hurt yourselves... if anything happens to you ladies, I don't know if I would ever recover, ever.

Początkowo Ziemia była tylko kamienną bryłą. Słońce uznało po trzech dniach, iż życie w samotności jest nudne i stworzył hakerów, po czym zesłał ich na Ziemię. Hakerzy powstali z promieni Słońca, więc mieli umiejętność promieniowania swą euforią i wiedzą, zarażajac nią nawzajem. Pierwsi hakerzy otrzymali komputery z systemami wsadowymi. Programowali nimi świat, przy pomocy kart performowanych. Stworzyli niebo, morze, grunt – ziemię. Po pewnym czasie hakerzy zaczęli skarżyć się Słońcu, że programowanie świata w tym systemie jest niewygodne, pracochłonne i męczące. Odrzekło na to Słońce: „Idźcie przed siebie i szukajcie inspiracji. Gdy je znajdziecie to stwórzcie swój własny język, w którym oprogramujecie świat.”

Hakerzy wyruszyli w podróż. Każdy z nich przyglądał się czemuś i szukał inspiracji. Każdy szukał jednak inspiracji gdzie indziej. Stało się to problemem, gdyż hakerzy nie rozmawiali ze sobą o swych inspiracjach, a zajmowali się tylko sobą i obiektem swych westchnień. Jedni pasjonowali się nadzwyczajnością drzew, inni nie mogli powstrzymać się od zachwytów obserwując wodę. Gdy powrócili wszyscy w swe pierwotne miejsce, Słońce spytało ich o zasady działania języka programowania, który wymyślili. Okazało się, że każdy mówił o innych zasadach, gdyż każdy z nich wymyślił inny język. Słońce zdenerwowało się, po czym schowało za horyzontem. Zapanowała długa noc. Hakerzy, nie dostrzegajac żadnych rozrywek zasiadli do swych komputerów i zaczęli programować, każdy w swoim języku. Stała się rzecz nadzwyczajna. Okazało się, że każdy język miał swoje indywidualne przeznaczenie. W jednym łatwiej programowało się drzewa, w innych rośliny, niebo, a w końcu ziemię. Słońce cały czas przebywało za horyzontem, więc rośliny zaczęły usychać. Zrozpaczeni hakerzy rzucili się za programowanie roślin tak, by przeżyły. Okazało się, że każdy z nich posługując się innym językiem, nie był w stanie programować w grupie. Hakerzy doszli do porozumienia i stworzyli uniwersalny język – C, w którym następnie programowali świat. Okazało się, że gdy używali jednego języka – praca była efektywniejsza, gdyż pracowali grupowo. Słońce, mające uszy i oczy wszędzie, dowiadując się o tym, ponownie wyszło zza horyzontu.

Po pewnym czasie Słońce uznało, iż na Ziemi nie mogą żyć sami hakerzy. Ktoś musi tworzyć świat przy pomocy kompilatora, ale ktoś musi umieć dbać o świat i bez niego. Próbowało już uczyć hakerów życia bez kompilatora, jednak próby te kończyły się niepowodzeniem.Hakerzy zachowywali się w takich momentach jak Lemingi. Chodzili w jedną i drugą stronę, nie wiedząc, co ze sobą zrobić. Chodzili tak w kółko, nie jedząc, nie robiąc nic. Gdy zaczęli padać z głodu – Słońce uznało, że próba nauczenia hakerów życia bez kompilacji była niezbyt mądrym pomysłem. Postanowiło jednak stworzyć istoty, które będą potrafiły żyć w ten sposób. Nie chciało jednak ryzykować i zdecydowało, że nowe istoty, ni w ząb nie będą potrafiły kompilować. Stworzyło więc Słońce z RAM-u hakerów istotę, którą nazwał kobietą. Wykreował tyle kobiet, ile było hakerów, z takimi osobościami, jakich oczekiwali poszczególni hakerzy. Hakerzy zaczęli płodzić potomstwo. Rodzili się kolejni hakerzy, którym przekazywano podstawową prawdę życiową „kompiluj dla dobra ludzkości, dziel się kodem, gdyż jak mówi stare hakerskie przysłowie - wystarczająca liczba przyglądających się oczu sprawia, że wszystkie błędy stają się banalne.” Kobiety odcisnęły olbrzymie piętno na ówczesnej cywilizacji, gdyż potrafiły zadbać o Ziemię – podlewały rośliny, pielęgnowały ziemię – czego nie potrafili hakerzy.

Ideologia hakerska była przekazywana poszczególnym pokoleniom. Niestety, pewnego dnia narodził się haker Bill Gates. Od dziecka sprawiał problemy i nie stosował się do obowiązujących reguł. Dołączył on do stowarzyszenia Microsoft, które łamało wszelkie konwenanse. Wkrótce został jego przedstawicielem. Stowarzyszenie Microsoft specjalizowało się w programowaniu świata, nie mówiąc nikomu, w jaki sposób to robią, co tworzą i jak ich twory działają. Sam dzień narodzin Billa był Dniem Przeklętym. W momencie jego przyjścia na świat, wielu hakerów na całej Ziemi postradało zmysły. Bill był Omenem. W dniu jego narodzin wielu hakerów przestało mówić innym o swoim kodzie. Hakerzy zaczęli zamykać się na siebie nawzajem. Przestali ze sobą rozmawiać. Zaczęli opatentowywać swoje twory. W tamtym okresie miało miejsce trzęsienie Ziemi. Kontynent podzielił się na dwie części. Jedną z nich nazwano UNIX. Kontynent UNIX był programowany w sposób promowany przez Omena. Nikt nikomu nie mówił o tym, co i jak tworzy, przez co ludzie znali się tylko na tym, co sami zrobili. Doprowadzało to do ludziej głupoty.

Całe szczęście, że na Ziemi żyła trójka hakerów czystej krwi. Nie ulegli oni Omenowi. Pierwszy z nich, człowiek bardzo buntowniczy, zwany Richardem Stallmanem, postanowił odwrócić sytuację do góry nogami, tak, by na kontynencie UNIX znów zapanowała wolność słowa i dzielenie się kodem. Był bardzo mądrym człowiekiem. Był w stanie obserwować twory innych hakerów, zawładniętych przez Omena, po czym tworzyć rzeczy identyczne, jednak mówiąc wszystkim jak je zrobił i jak działają. Doprowadziło to do rewolucji. Wkrótce wymieniono wszystkie rzeczy UNIX-a owiane tajemnicą na identyczne, jednak takie, o których wszyscy wszystko wiedzieli. Nowe rzeczy zostały ochrzczone mianem GNU. Mimo tego podstawowa część UNIX-a – grunt – pozostał skażony zamkniętością kodu.

W tym samym czasie Omen zaczął przebudowywać drugi kontynent. Ogłupił wszystkich ludzi, nazwał się królem i kazał sobie płacić za wszystko. Kontynent Billa został nazwany Windows.

Richard Stallman zaczął budować od nowa wyspę Hurd. Przeprogramowywał cząsteczki wody w cząsteczki ziemi. Było to trudne zajęcie, jednak nie poddawał się.Wkrótce nieopodal półwyspu, zwanego przez starych hakerów Finlandią, z oceanu wypłynął bóg Linus i opowiedział zebranym o małej wyspie zwanej Linux. Miała to być wyspa miodem i mlekiem płynąca. Uwierzyła w to znikoma część ludności, jednak wśród wierzących znalazła się trójka najwspanialszych hakerów. Oni i kilkaset innych ochotników popłynęli na wyspę Linux, zabierając ze sobą wszystko co do tej pory stworzyli, zabierając gatunki roślin i zwierząt parami, tak, by mogły płodzić się na wyspie.Wszystko to co zabrali było GNU, zatem po ich przybyciu na Linuksa i osadzeniu na nim GNU, wyspa zmieniła nazwę na GNU/Linux. Hakerzy, którzy pozostali na kontynencie UNIX byli zdegustowani. W najbliższym czasie większość z nich przepłynęła przez ocean na kontynent Windows, gdzie wmówiono im, że nie są hakerami, a programistami. Na Windowsie hakerzy całkowicie wymarli, istnieli tylko programiści, jednak ci nie płodzili nowych programistów, a zwykłych ludzi. Naród ludzki powstał właśnie z tych programistów.

Richard Stallman poświęcił się GNU/Linuksowi i Hurdowi, który wkrótce także uzyskał przedrostek GNU. Jego dwaj koledzy, hakerzy – Bruce Perens i Eric Raymond zajęli się utrzymywaniem kontatków z kontynentami UNIX i Windows. Głosili prawdy dotyczące wyspy na której żyją i wolności związanej z życiem na niej. Duża część ludzi zrozumiała swą głupotę i doznała oświecenia. Przybyła ona na GNU/Linuksa, zabierając piasek z Windowsa. Dosypywali piasek na wyspie, na którą przybyli, dzięki czemu zacząła się ona rozrastać.

Tak powstał świat, w którym żyjemy. Wciąż rodzimy się jako zwykli ludzie, nie rozumiejący tego jak działa i do czego służy kompilator. Nie rozumiemy też wielu różnych rzeczy, gdyż nikt o nich nie mówi, są owiane tajemnicą. Tylko dlatego, że rodzimy się na Windowsie. Istotą oświecenia jest odkrycie GNU/Linuksa i przybycia na niego. To jest najważniejsza prawda, to jest cel życia każdej żywej istoty.

b.YISK, z drobnymi poprawkami Pani Anny Królak.

Na conferência Linux Plumbers, um dos autores do PowerTOP, Arjan van de Ven e Auke Kok, outro dos programadores do laboratório de Open Source da intel, demonstraram um sistema GNU/Linux a arrancar em 5 segundos, tratava-se de um Asus EEEPC, usando para tal um versão modificada da Fedora e outra da Moblin.

Escusado será dizer que toda esta performance é possível porque se trata de um sistema Livre, de fonte aberta, onde os programadores podem mexer à vontade, tirando assim o máximo partido de todas as partes do sistema e podendo apresentar tudo o que fizeram para o conseguir.

E não se trata apenas de uma experiência, já andam por aí estes sistemas em diversos portáteis, usando o splashtop na Asus, o voodoo IOS da HP e o Latitude On da Dell.

LPC: Booting Linux in five seconds [LWN.net]

"It's not about booting faster, it's about booting in 5 seconds." Instead of saving a second here and there, set a time budget for the whole system, and make each step of the boot finish in its allotted time. And no cheating. "Done booting means CPU and disk idle," Arjan said. No fair putting up the desktop while still starting services behind the scenes. (An audience member pointed out that Microsoft does this.) The "done booting" time did not include bringing up the network, but did include starting NetworkManager. A system with a conventional hard disk will have to take longer to start up: Arjan said he has run the same load on a ThinkPad and achieved a 10-second boot time.

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Entre a muita informação disponível de forma aberta e gratuita, nomeadamente os seus cursos abertos e online, encontra-se um livro que os diversos intervenientes no Ensino e nos meios de decisão governamentais e políticos deveriam ler antes de tomarem decisões como as de ontem que colocam em causa o desenvolvimento do nosso País, trata-se de "Opening Up Education The Collective Advancement of Education through Open Technology, Open Content, and Open Knowledge." Edited by Toru Iiyoshi and M. S. Vijay Kumar Foreword by John Seely Brown

O site português de promoção de um Ensino Livre, Software livre no ensino, descreve-o do seguinte modo:

Software livre no ensino

Pelas mãos de Toru Liyoshi, director do "Knowledge Media Lab" da Fundação Carnegie e M. S. Vijay Kumar, director do Gabinete para a Inovação e Tecnologia na Educação do MIT, chega-nos um livro com uma compilação de estudos sobre tecnologia aberta, conteúdos abertos, e conhecimento aberto. O livro é entitulado: "Opening Up Education: The Collective Advancemente of Education through Open Technology, Open Content, and Open Knowledge"

Para dar uma melhor ideia do que poderá encontrar neste livro deixamos aqui os títulos de cada capítulo:

• Foreword: Creating a Culture of Learning  Download PDF (706 KB)
• Introduction: An Invitation to Open Up the Future of Education Download PDF (763 KB)

Section I: Open Educational Technology

• Open Educational Technology: Tempered Aspirations Download PDF (772 KB)
• Designing Open Educational Technology Download PDF (0.99 MB)
• The Gates Are Shut: Technical and Cultural Barriers to Open Education Download PDF (907 KB)
• Does an Open Source Strategy Matter? Lessons Learned from the iLabs Project Download PDF (2.66 MB)
• Evaluating the Results of Open Education Download PDF (1.16 MB)
• A Harvest Too Large? A Framework for Educational Abundance Download PDF (1.28 MB)
• Digital Libraries, Learning Communities, and Open Education Download PDF (1.27 MB)
• Open Source in Open Education: Promises and Challenges Download PDF (1.40 MB)

Section II: Open Educational Content

• Introduction: "Open Educational Content: Transforming Access to Education" Download PDF (1.27 MB)
• Widening Participation in Education through Open Educational Resources Download PDF (1.44 MB)
• Building Open Learning as a Community-based Research Activity Download PDF (1.54 MB)
• Extending the Impact of Open Educational
  Resources through Alignment with Pedagogical Content Knowledge and
  Institutional Strategy: Lessons Learned from the MERLOT Community
  Experience Download PDF (1.69 MB)
• Why Understanding the Use and Users of Open Education Matters Download PDF (1.83 MB)
• OpenCourseWare: Building a Culture of Sharing Download PDF (1.82 MB)
• Challenges and Opportunities for the Open Education Movement: A Connexions Case Study Download PDF (2.00 MB)
• 2005–2012: The OpenCourseWars Download PDF (2.04 MB)
• Revolutionizing Education through Innovation: Can Openness Transform Teaching and Learning? Download PDF (2.18 MB)

Section III: Open Educational Knowledge

• Introduction: "Open Educational Knowledge: More than Opening the Classroom Door" Download PDF (2.29 MB)
• Inquiry Unplugged: A Scholarship of Teaching and Learning for Open Understanding Download PDF (2.30 MB)
• The Middle of Open Spaces: Generating Knowledge about Learning through Multiple Layers of Open Teaching Communities Download PDF (2.31 MB)
• Open Teaching: The Key to Sustainable and Effective Open Education Download PDF (2.36 MB)
• Promoting Technology-enabled Knowledge Building and Sharing for Sustainable Open Educational Innovations Download PDF (2.40 MB)
• Scaffolding for Systemic Change Download PDF (2.44 MB)
• Learning Design: Sharing Pedagogical Know-How Download PDF (2.71 MB)
• Common Knowledge: Openness in Higher Education Download PDF (2.69 MB)
• Open for What? A Case Study of Institutional Leadership and Transformation Download PDF (2.84 MB)
• What's Next for Open Knowledge? Download PDF (2.82 MB)
• Conclusion: New Pathways for Shaping the Collective Agenda to Open Up EducationDownload PDF

{Via Ensino Livre}

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Eis a lista dessa semana:

• Quantum Space-times: Beyond the Continuum of Minkowski and Einstein
• Undergraduate Lecture Notes in Topological Quantum Field Theory

Essa semana também teve alguns outros artigos bem interessantes:

• Brazilian Professor Invents Solar Powered WiFi Access Point
• Ph.D. comic: 'Enrollment vs. Unemployment Rate'
• The new Geography of Science
• Quantum Theory and Analysis
• The world's 23 toughest math questions — pra quem ainda não conhece, os "Problemas do Milênio" foram anunciados pelo Clay Mathematics Institute, que tem uma biblioteca disponível online realmente muito bacana!
• Update on the field with one element
• Princeton Companion to Mathematics (estou coçando pra comprar o meu! :wink: )

P.S.:

• Intelligence and mate choice: intelligent men are always appealing; :twisted: &
• We’ll Fill This Space, but First a Nap: Sleep Boosts Creativity by 33%. :mrgreen:

Berners-Lee invented the hypertexted Web in 1989 while working as a software programmer at CERN, the European particle physics laboratory. He wrote the first Web client and server in 1990, and he created the HTML and HTTP protocols.

Infelizmente como hoje se pôde constatar por cá não temos pessoas de visão, a única que possuem é para a propaganda barata e para atrasar o país enviando-o para a idade das trevas da comunicação livre.

The World Wide Web Foundation, scheduled to launch early next year, will "advance a Web which is open and free," Berners-Lee said at anevent in Washington. The foundation will promote democracy, free speech and the freedom of Internet users to access the online content they want, he said.

Berners-Lee mentioned two goals for the Web in the future: to advance and create new forms of democracy, including meritocracies, and to help improve health care. The Web Foundation will also focus on Web standards and interoperability and on advancing Web science, he said.

{in Computerworld}

I found that there is often an important miscalculation made. Like in the GNOME live wiki there is a page TargetMarkets - but then the question "Who are we talking to?" The assumption seems to be that the target markets and the audience are the same. What is the problem with that? Well its like in some families decisions of buying a product like cars are made by women, while the buy is done by their husbands. I mean: If ISVs are one primary target group that does not mean at all that our marketing should target them! So I think often if not always one needs to talk to the end users if you want to convince other target groups.

Look at TV spots: Bridgestone runs tv ads to convince car owners to buy their tyres. But you can not buy a tyre at Bridgestone, really. The same is true for nearly all products. Sure there are the intermediaries who sell softare or install operating systems. But I think talking to all possible groups is too hard. We can even not think of all possibilities of how GNOME comes to desktops. So I now would say thinking about target markets is really a distraction. The only thing GNOME should do is to talk to everybody who is interested and try to provide them with what they need to know and want.

Actually I would also put the arguments upside down and would say that distributions are rather the ones who should go after different groups. They make the software collection that makes up their distros and they should better know their end users.

So where does this all end up?

I would recommend to drastically reduce the complexity of how marketing is thought about by focusing on the end users. In the end ever decisions to use GNOME is done by people who look at GNOME and decide that its worth using. So if GNOME is convincing to them it might be for their group as well.

OTOH I also think that thinking about target groups is something that should be more important for the development of GNOME than for marketing.Why? Because the development of GNOME should meet the needs of the actual target group. The marketing could say what they want - but it can not change GNOME to meet the needs.

So I suggest to GNOME and other free desktops like KDE that they simplify the marketing by getting in contact with the user. Both desktops absolutely fail to do so. They fail to really show how they can help the user to get productive, they fail in providing noticeable information on how to get the free desktop on their computer or to give answers to other user questions.

What are they doing? Essentially they focus 98% on developers and companies. on web sites and other marketing. But I would argue that this is development and not marketing. Also the whole approach into designing and updating websites is focusing on mere technical aspects.

I dont think what I discovered and write here is anything special or new. Its more that it dawned on me how all problems are interrelated. If you create a web site for a project it is often not the best idea to ask yourself what you have and how you can put all that on the front page. It is often better to rethink what you need to communicate on the root page - and do not forget that users are highly impatient and will simply leave the site if they do not find the information they are seeking in a short period of time.

So you can do the test and maybe pretend to be an interested GNOME user who likes to see or test GNOME. you got to www.gnome.org and then give yourself only maybe 10 seconds to find the information. You will fail here and you will fail at www.kde.org. But try it yourself. Then go to some bug commercial site and try the same and you will see that they often provide answers to the questions visitors may have in mind on their front pages. You do not need to provide actual releases - you can also point to where people can find out more or get what they want. This does not even need to be a link.

It could really be that simple. But from my perspective the problem is often rather that only few people do care about presenting this information and then the team of those who can work on the content is small - and then also the mechanism to provide changes is not straightforward. And technical discussions often are not there to help volunteers but rather to steer them away or distract from the essential idea.

I am not saying anything against development. Its one core of free software - its the product - but development should never get in the way of the message! Think from a users perspective - and if you do not want to rather stay away from marketing and web site development. This could benefit everybody.

ELXIS PCs run Redhat

The nasty little remnants that get stuck in your teeth have to come out, and soon.  The junk drives me absolutely nuts.

Normally I'd run upstairs and floss in private, then brush my teeth.  No one the wiser.

(Isn't it amazing how a perfectly clean mouth can smell like crap after flossing?  Brushing is a requirement for everyone after flossing, so do it from now on!)

This time was a bit different.  The little boy has been more demanding today then usual and the wife had some stuff she needed to do, so I put a line of floss in my pocket and went to the den to hold the little monster for her.

After a time the boy started entertaining himself in my lap with a truck or something so I pulled the floss out and got to work.  That junk stuck in there was really bothering me.

Did I mention my wife is somewhat a germaphobe?

It didn't take long for her to see what I was doing.  Honestly, had I thought about it, I wouldn't have done it anyway, but that didn't matter.  Too late.  Judging by the reaction my wife had, flossing popcorn teeth with baby in lap is a ginourmous no-no!

I thought she was going to throw-up.  I had to brush my teeth AND wash my hands before she'd give the little bugger back.  I think she wanted me to change shirts, but I played dumb...

In case you're wondering what I did with the used up, old nasty floss, it's in my pocket.  I'm think I'm going to leave it on her keyboard as a nice surprise.

1. The presentation of papers should observe the following standards:

• works should be prepared using Word for Windows, and sent in floppy disk and two printed copies.

Como disse recentemente, está aí uma prova sobre a falta de liberdade de escolha, por causa da imposição do uso de formatos fechados, pagos e dependentes da plataforma (sistema operacional), escolhida por alguns. Não vou nem comentar sobre o floppy. Isso existe ainda? Imagino que o site deve estar desatualizado.

Vamos ver quanto custaria essa brincadeira (em prazo imediato)? Se eu, que rodo GNU/Linux, quisesse adquirir o Windows Vista, obteria pela bagatala de aproximadamente R$ 300. Já o pacote Office, que inclui o processador de textos Word exigido pela revista, sairia por aproximadamente R$ 200. Esse preço foi de uma loja das que consegui verificar o preço, sugerida na página da Microsoft, na seção de compras. Ou seja, R$ 500, mais da metade da bolsa de um estudante de mestrado (do CNPq ou CAPES). Fora as futuras atualizações que a pessoa terá que arcar.

Recentemente, o professor Jean-Claude Guédon veio à USP [1] e falou um pouco, entre outras coisas, sobre algumas modificações que estão ocorrendo na produção e comunicação científica em nossa era digital.  Entre elas, mencionou algumas iniciativas que visam tornar o acesso ao material científico cada vez mais aberto e acessível a qualquer um (veja, por exemplo, a Budapest Open Access Initiative).

Muitos elogios foram feitos a iniciativas como a SciELO (The Scientific Electronic Library Online), sistema brasileiro onde ficam várias revistas em que o acesso a todos seus artigos é aberto. Ao mesmo tempo, vemos no exemplo citado logo acima uma revista brasileira, sob o domínio do SciELO, que obriga seus autores a usarem sistemas caros e fechados (esse para mim é o principal obstáculo) para poder submeter seus artigos.

Alguém vê algum sentido e concorda com isso? Caso concorde, gostaria de saber o porquê, sendo que existem diversas formas de contornar esse problema, sem ter que obrigar autores a usar determinado sabor em seu computador. Se uma pessoa quer e pode usar um sistema operacional e programas caros e de qualidade ruins (pelo menos para mim, muitos discordarão, mas esse não é meu foco aqui), tudo bem. As pessoas devem mesmo ter sua liberdade de escolha. Mas obrigar aqueles que optam por outros sistemas (e. g., o GNU/Linux, aberto e gratuito) e softwares (e. g., editores de texto Vim e Emacs, processador de textos Open Office, que possibilita salvar em formatos abertos etc.), devem aceitar situações como essa? A comunicação, o mais importante aqui, deve ser dificultada por esses detalhes? Você já se deparou com situações como a vivida por nosso colega? Conte-nos como foi. Quais revistas ou situações lhe ofereceram esse tipo de obstáculo?

[1] Resumos do professor Ewout ter Haar das aulas do Professor Guédon: aula 1, aula 2, aula 3, aula 4, aula 5, aula 7 e aula 9.

Alguns vídeos dessas aulas podem ser vistos aqui.

Esta mensagem está sob a licença CreativeCommons Atribuição, Compartilhamento pela mesma Licença.

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Em breve sairá a nova versão do:

• Blender 2.48 (muitíssimo em breve),
• Python 3000 (algum dia de Outubro, não especificaram dia),
• OpenOffice 3 (não especificaram mês/dia),
• Debian 4.xx Lenny (não especificaram mês/dia),
• Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex (30 de Outubro),
• Thunderbird 3 (sei lá! :P), para testar o Alpha 1 do Thunderbird clique aqui.
• GIMP 2.6 (em breve),
• Inkscape 2.47 (nunca falam quando vai ser lançado).

E é por isso que eu amo a área de tecnologia... tanta coisa sendo lançada... SEMPRE. E sempre tem novidade. Eu nunca me canso disso! :P

Encontro de utilizadores de Ubuntu em Lisboa. Hoje foi o primeiro, ao fim da tarde nas instalações da Intraneia.

Objectivos: conhecer as pessoas da nossa comunidade e discutir assuntos relacionados com o Ubuntu ou tecnologia em geral numa conversa informal.

Apareceram pessoas de idades e níveis de conhecimento muito diversificados, desde contribuidores frequentes a utilizadores que procuravam suporte técnico. Já agora, para quem precisa de ajuda no Ubuntu estes encontros são uma óptima altura para obter suporte imediato.

Para quem está curioso sobre o que se falou, os temas de conversa foram muito bem resumidos pelo jneves:

Assuntos de conversa: ubuntu, facilidade de utilização, netpcs, eeepc 901, gnome-do, máquina fotográfica, f-spot, kernel sem binários e blobs, sistema operativo vs internet, privacidade, direito de autor, p2p, split/cat, fotografia, jornal em scribus, porquê da advocacia, pootle, forum vs mailing-list, problema de kernel do hardy, datas de releases, teste de pacotes na universe, ubuntu vs fedora, regularidade de release dates, gentoo, onde obter suporte, beta.ubuntu-pt.org, sintaxe wikis, traduções kde no ubuntu - problemas de carregamento, traduções, atrad, próxima reunião.

Gostei bastante e espero que nos próximos encontros apareçam ainda mais pessoas. igama e kimus a vossa presença é obrigatória na próxima edição!

Nun ist die Basis von Chrome jedoch Open Source: Chromium ist nichts anderes als die unkompilierte Version von Chrome. Google liebt Open Source und ist sehr engagiert in diesem Bereich, aus einem einfachen Grund: weil Open Source nur Vorteile bringt, für alle Beteiligten. Man hat eine gute Idee, schreibt ein Programm, gibt es frei, schon kann es jeder nutzen und alles Mögliche damit anstellen. Es erweitern, es verbessern. Der Autor erhält gutes und sinnvolles Feedback, das Programm wird besser und besser. Es wird verschlankt und vergrößert, angepasst und neu gebaut.

Genau das ist nun auch bei Google Chrome passiert: der Google-Browser wurde geforkt, der Abkömmling nennt sich Iron (nicht sonderlich einfallsreich, aber gut). Viel Neues bringt Iron nicht mit, mit einer für Nerds und Geeks wichtigen Kleinigkeit: die Google-Features wurden entfernt, somit sind keine datenschutzrechtlichen Bedenken mehr gegeben. Diese Version könnte auch in der nächsten Ubuntu-Version Einzug halten, für den Steinbock dürfte es schon zu spät sein. Prinzipiell aber ist Chrome/Iron der perfekte Begleiter für Netbooks: klein, schnell und elegant.

Und ich behaupte: genau das war u.a. der Plan von Google. Der Browser sollte geforkt werden, um mehr Vielfalt in den Markt zu bringen, um ihn weiter zu beleben. Deshalb ist das Engagement Googles bei Mozilla meiner Meinung nach auch nicht in Gefahr: Google profitiert davon, wenn Nutzer wirklich die Wahl haben, wie sie im Internet unterwegs sein wollen. Ein Internetnutzer, der die Wahl hat, ist zufrieden; ein zufriedener Surfer verweilt länger im Netz; mehr Internetnutzung bedeutet für Google mehr Einnahmen durch Online-Werbung.

Warum Pro-Linux diesen Fork als "Klon" bezeichnet, bleibt mir indessen ein Rätsel.

Nachtrag, 26.09.08: Der Chrome-Fork Iron benötigt Administrator-Rechte. Ich rate deshalb davon ab, ihn zu nutzen.

En el caso de los pop-ups existe una forma fácil de configurar su comportamiento. Firefox te ofrece la opción de ocultar el aviso-desplaza-contenido amarillo para que solo aparezca un icono muy mono en la barra de estado. En el caso de los plugins la cosa es un poco más rebuscada. No existe ninguna opción visible (o al menos yo no la he encontrado) para deshabilitar los avisos. Hurgando un poco por about:config y cacharreando con todas las opciones que contienen la palabra plugin, he encontrado (lamentablemente depués de escribir a Mozilla) la opción para deshabilitarlo: solo hay que modificar plugin.default_plugin_disabled y ponerlo a false. ¿Que cómo me entero ahora de que me faltan plugins? Fácil, si te faltan un plugin lo ves en la propia página. Es más, algunos sitios te ponen un aviso algo más mono si no detectan el plugin.

There are some new modern-day sort of communists who want to get
rid of the incentive for musicians, moviemakers and software makers under
various guises. They don't think that those incentives should exist."
Bill Gates

Some people like Bill Gates assume that intellectual property such as
patents and copyright are the incentives for the future of creation. We
disagree and we are not alone.

More than 58 million Creative Commons licensed photos are being shared on Flickr. More than 290 thousand contributors are working on the free encyclopedia Wikipedia….  and the estimated value of Free Libre Open Source Software is more than 20 billion dollars.

You may have never heard of FLOSS, but you have definitely used it. Much of the Internet is powered by Free and Open Source Software. In fact, without it, the internet might never have evolved into the global network we see today.

Why are people working on a encyclopedia for free? Why are people creating and maintaining software for free? Why are people giving away their music so others can share it, remix it and listen to it for free? Who are these people? How many people are involved? Is it a movement? Is it a hype? Is it a way of life? Is it altruism? Is it idealism? Is it communism? Is it capitalism? Is it political? Is it changing the world?

We are curious as to what motivates people to share, cooperate and work together on software, films, music and so on. What makes them so determined and energetic? And what vision produced this culture of giving and sharing?

[Titel:] FLOSS: Free Libre Open Source Software

‘Free Libre Open Source Software is software which has been liberally
licensed to grant the right of users to study, modify, and improve its
design through the availability of its source code.'

">Unlike proprietary software, such as the operating software of your
Apple Mac or Windows machine, this type of software encourages you to
study it, change it as you see fit, and share it with the rest of the world.
One well known example of FLOSS is the GNU/Linux operating system.

So how did FLOSS come into existence, why is it called FLOSS, and
why should we care?

In the early days of computing, if you bought a computer you also got the operating software, including its source code. Source code is like the recipe for the finished product; you write source code to create software and you need access to it if you want to modify the program.
For the most part, only those who worked in universities or large companies had access to such expensive machines; and this community of researchers and developers relied on each other closely.
This all changed in the 1980s. As hardware prices fell, more and more people had access to computers. A number of manufacturers decided to commodify software, and to protect their interests they restricted access to the source code.

This was the birth of the proprietary software industry, and it coincided with the birth of the free software movement founded by Richard Stallman.

You have the freedom:
freedom 0: to run the program, for any purpose.
freedom 1: to modify the program to suit your needs.
freedom 2: to redistribute copies, either gratis or for a fee.
freedom 3: to distribute modified versions of the program, so that the community
can benefit from your improvements.

Stallman said: "When we speak of ‘free software' we're talking about freedom, not price." He wanted software users to have a right to shape their computing world freely.

Others disagreed with the goals of the Free Software movement and started to use the term 'Open Source Software' instead. They rejected the ethics and ideology of Free Software, and focussed on a more pragmatic and businesslike approach. Both groups, however, were convinced of the huge potential of software collaboration and sharing.

FLOSS, an acronym coined by Richard Ayer Gosh, stands for Free Libre Open Source Software, in other words: free and open source software combined.

Today there are more and more people actively using FLOSS. Three famous examples are Wikipedia, the community-driven online encyclopedia; Creative Commons, an organization providing tailored licenses for creative works, and the One Laptop Per
Child project, which is using FLOSS to build an affordable education platform for kids all over the world.

FLOSS has been around for the last twenty years, and the ideas behind it have had
not only a huge technological impact, but also an economic, political, social and cultural impact, whose results will continue to be felt for many years to come.

So we have good reason to dedicate a film to this cultural revolution, particularly if the film itself is made using FLOSS software.

So let us spark the process by making a generative movie that not only portrays the FLOSS community, but which invites viewers to join it. We want to redefine cinema, by making a film as a FLOSS cultural worker would: as a collaborative platform. Join us, at
www.flossthemovie.net.

END/ FIN / EINDE

MTV has turned fantasy into reality and have made game shows to influence your kids. As everyone watches Cribs for these basketball players, rock starts, and children of rich people they have influenced the masses into believing their life is normal. I mean you can have your own personal barber and chair like Jay-Z. You can have your own Bentley like Rev. Run. You can throw parties at a nightclub for adults when you are 16.

Speaking of 16 the one that is the most outrageous is the show called My Sweet 16. This show takes the normal sweet 16 party and shows how someone can blow it out of proportion. I got hip to it from my nephew who knew I would blow up watching it. So they follow these rich kids from the planning of the party, hiring of celebrities to attend to the party, and finally the big giveaway of an expensive car that your mom could only dream of. So at the end this young rich girl gets to turn 16 with a 85K car and drive off into the credits.

Now this effects us because you see this mentality in your kids, on the streets and in the club. When I was coming up you might have a outfit for the club now people have the club clothes everyday. When I was coming up you were lucky to go to a concert, shit we were dialing on the phone like a lunatic to win them from the radio station, now these kids go to concerts in other cities. When I was a kid only the grown folk had BMW's now you see teenagers with cars that a hard working person still will never get. I know you youngsters reading this think I'm hating, but I aint because I already go it. The thing I am really getting at here is the parents now enable the flossing of the kids. It's one thing when you sell dope it's another thing when your mother buys you a better car than her own.

Solution: I really like when I see people get money. I know growing up for me I dreamed I would swim in money like Scrooge McDuck. The problem now is people have lost their sense of reality. The music videos and MTV have taken the celebrity life and modernized it.  If you don't make 100K a year you probably shouldn't be flossin at all because you really can't afford it.

One to Grow on! Tricking is Tricking, wasting money is not a good excuse just because you have a lot of it.

PS. That picture isn't Me! This is why you shouldn't put your pictures up on the Web because someone might use your face to prove a point. A point that you are a Asshole!

Boycott Novell » September 24 is ‘World Day Against Software Patents’

Brussels, 2nd September 2008 — A global coalition of more than 80 software companies, associations and developers has declared the 24th of September to be the “World Day Against Software Patents”. Five years ago, on 24 September 2003, the European Parliament adopted amendments to limit the scope of patent law and thereby protect small software companies from the harmful effects of broad and trivial software patents. A global petition asking to effectively stop software patents worldwide will be launched on 24 September 2008, together with specific additional requests for certain regions such as Europe, the United States or India.

I think kernel development is a whole different business today. Development is happening at a very fast pace - so you cant say that nothing is happening here and that we desperately need more input. On the other hand many other parts of Linux are in a bad shape.

The number one issue for desktop users as I see it is that you still do not get viable status information for printers. This in fact means that you never quite know whats wrong with your printer when you use Linux. There is no real progress in this area - at least nothing I have seen despite some industry people saying they want better drivers etc. - if one takes this more heartly one could say that this means you can not use printers on Linux. Thats not quite right - you can - but you may need to throw away full ink cartridges of one color because you can not test if its full or not. Nobody really sees that as a big problem. Its not a big thing but I could understand if somebody would dismiss Linux for this reason only. The only good solution would be printers with web interfaces or similar. I guess those are still more expensive.

Other issues on Linux still are power saving modes, Xorg, GNOME, KDE, OpenOffice.org. On GNOME I think Canonical has hired a lot of GNOME people and also a lot of GNOMERs work on Ubuntu for free. Undoubtedly Ubuntu was a breeze of fresh air when it came to the market. It still has its problems - like there is no graphical setting of the screen. There is a program called 'displayconfig-gtk' - but thats not part of any System menu - so its hidden - and its usability is awful - and it does not work most of the time. OTOH Ubuntu was the distro who contributed this application to the general public as something like this is not yet part of the GST (GNOME system tools). Other thing is missing is a DSL configuration interface as part of the network configuration. This of today only supports modems, ISDN and ethernet cards (more or less). But DSL or cable is a quite frequent setup.

Mary Gardiner has written a blog post about how to get females involved in projects.  I want to emphasise one of the points she makes:

Don’t discount what women do ['what women do' here used as 'community management, documentation and similar activities', via Geek chicks: second thoughts]

I believe there is a blind spot here for everyone in the open source community.  It is nothing for an open source company to fund development effort, and hire x coders (for some non-trivial x) but to suggest that any other contribution to the community be made is to cross the line on acceptable suggestions.  But the community does not rely on coders alone.  The best code in the world is useless if no one knows of it, or if it is hidden behind a terrible user interface, or can't be licensed because lawmakers have outlawed it (eg  encryption code).  I have hinted at this problem in my post on FLOSS best practices.  This is what I am referring to by the references to KPIs in that post.

Because numbers are relatively easy to come by, it is comparatively easy to criticise companies for not submitting enough code to one project or another but, there are other things that a contribution to the community should be measured against. Unfortunately, the word which has filtered back to me is that managers are not assessed against these soft contributions.  It should therefore come as no surprise that companies are not committing to them.

It would be nice to see the community demand that organisations support the whole breadth of the open source community.  In this way, a more rounded view of what makes a good open source corporate citizen could be created.  This would include things such as supporting marketing, documentation or communication efforts, the making of submissions to governments or courts (or supporting compliance initiatives) and the myriad of other things which are essential to a functional community associated with either a project or with open source generally.

Der Autor hat den Artikel offensichtlich mit heißer Nadel gestrickt. Oder er kennt sich einfach nicht aus.

Dass man kein offenes Protokoll kaufen kann, sollte eigentlich klar sein. Ansonsten kaufte als nächstes Microsoft das auch ganz gern genutztes Protokoll HTTP.