Computer

Free Software

When you turn on your computer, you're making a political statement. If, like most people, your computer boots Microsoft Windows, the statement you're making is that transnational corporations should control access to the most powerful public media that ever existed. New Internationalist Magazine.

Insist on Free Software - Everywhere

When you decide to buy a new computer, your choice is either Apple, or Windows. They are both platforms that try to keep you in a walled garden. You do not get to see the code that underlies their product, so it is hard to tell what it is doing. Often it phones home.

To be auditable, source code must be open and unencumbered by proprietary agreements. Beware if you see a long EULA.

Free software isn't just low cost, it has advantages in auditability, security, extensibility, quality, and performance. Linux runs the fastest computers.

Computers for any purpose are best when running free software.

You would think that if something is free, that demand for it would be high to unlimited. For the most commonly used applications, free software is better. There are literally thousands of applications. It may not be widely used in the US, but it is in the rest of the world.

We know that cell phone microphones can be turned on remotely, Apple IPhones batteries are not removable so you may not know if they are really shut down, that location tracking or address books can be accessed by apps (or others). Medical devices implanted in the body are updated wirelessly and, since their software is proprietary, are not open to audit. Mattel is making a Barbie doll that has voice recognition, and it remembers what is said, is that cause for alarm ? Late model TVs have microphones and voice recognition.

Proprietary, non-auditable software is in almost all late automobiles technology, not just Volkswagens. Demonstrations have shown that some recent automobiles vital functions can be taken over remotely. Late model automobiles are surveillance-ready.

Consider that voting machines could have the same kind of problem: they run perfectly, except possibly on election day.

The internet of things will soon surround us and is ideal for universal surveillance. Together these observations should make a strong case that most all software needs to be auditable. For that, it must be Free Software.

The Case For Free Software

A detailed explanation of free software is here at https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

Free software transparency allows it to be fully audited. Because anyone can access, examine, explore and modify the source code, functions can not be hidden. This should be a requirement for at least some applications...like voting machines. Manufacturers of voting machines are all right-wing partisans, and they insist that the software on their machines is a proprietary, trade secret. You can't see it and it is not auditable Yes, they can steal elections. Voters should insist on open source.

It is more about freedom than money.

Before You Give Your Computer to the Geek Squad (6/8/2018)

WannaCry cyber attack (5/12/2017)

How Intel and PC makers prevent you from modifying your laptop's firmware (2/13/2015)

War on General Purpose Computers is the difference between utopia and dystopia (12/26/2014)

China Bans use of Microsoft's Windows 8 on Government Computers (5/20/2014)

Gluglug X60 – The Free Software ThinkPad

Anti Computer Hacking Bill Coming to Congress (2/11/2011)

Time To Pull The Plug

Windows XP's Days are Really Numbered Now (2/7/2009)

Purism

Kaggle
Webpy

US-CERT

ACM (Association for Computing Machinery)

Hartford ACM

Javascript

Angular.js

Impress.js

D3

Require.js

Backbone js

Underscore js

Node

MongoDB

Express

Buy a printer which does not report your activities to the police.

Have you considered Free Software ?

Public Knowledge

Digital Freedom

Surveillance

Jacob Applebaum (video about an hour... everyone should watch this.)

NSA likely reading windows software on your computer.

Military plans to control the internet

Freedom on the Internet

You are losing your freedom. See this flash presentation: http://www.lessig.org/freeculture/free.html (other formats are available at http://www.lessig.org/freeculture/

About US communication policy from the Susan Crawford Blog

The Net Censors

About Microsoft Censorship. All you have to do is pay to get your message through.

See other notes on the internet.

Spam

About Spam

Software Patents

Public Patent Foundation

End Software Patents

No Software Patents

NoSoftwarePatents campaign

Mueller's Blog on Software Patents

Here's a book on the software patent struggle that you can download for free at http://www.no-lobbyists-as-such.com/index.html

Wireless

If you add up your cable, phone, cell phone, and internet access bills, you won't believe that communication has gotten much cheaper and faster. Telecomm companies don't want you to know.

"High-speed Internet access is fast becoming a basic public necessity just like water, gas or electricity. But far too many Americans are finding themselves on the wrong side of the digital divide, unable to get connected or afford expensive commercial service. Community Internet is the answer." (from Free Press)

Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, discusses the issues at http://www.hearusnow.org/connected and, at the same website find out how Philadelphia is doing it.

Learn about community wifi.

A wireless-sensor network to report pollution and traffic comes to Cambridge, MA.

Download a free book describing how your community can have wireless networking.

Center For Digital Democracy

Consumer Reports has a website about US communications policy. Major media doesn't provide much information for consumers about such things because they are massively conflicted. As Danny Schecter titled his book: "The More You Watch, the Less You Know".

Digital Tipping Point

"With iOS 13, we’ve included a bunch of pointless updates that will make your battery drain more quickly and your phone run more slowly until you give up and buy a new one." https://t.co/7oLVBNLnVW
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) September 6, 2019