FLOSS blog

Finally you can tell rabble.ca what you think. As long as you sign up to a third-party data mining service.

radiorahim — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 03:37:42 +0000

This past week, rabble.ca outsourced web commenting on blog posts, and news items to Disqus, a global data mining and web marketing company. It is now no longer possible to comment on most of rabble.ca without handing over massive amounts of data to this U.S. based corporation. Even if you already have a rabble.ca account, commenting is not allowed unless you create a Disqus account.

Sony should go back to making transistor radios

radiorahim — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 06:21:46 +0000

Whether it be the North Korean state engaging in cyber espionage, hacktivist collectives, cyber mafia groups or the tooth fairy whodunnit, what many people feel about the recent break in and disclosure of internal documents at the Sony Corporation is schadenfreude.

It couldn't happen to a better bunch of folks.

The Sony Corporation would like us all to forget their shameful history of secretly installing rootkit malware on millions of computers running Microsoft Windows. It was all part of Sony's effort to impose Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) on people who had purchased Sony music CDs.

Playing Secret Santa this year? Why not try Crypto Santa?

radiorahim — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 05:36:23 +0000

Dmytri Kleiner, author of the Telekommunist Manifesto, offers us this new spin on the old Christmas game of "Secret Santa."

Inspired by the Tor Project (The Onion Router) for anonymizing web surfing, the "Crypto Santa" game provides us with a way to further anonymize our Secret Santa gift-giving at our own holiday gatherings of friends, co-workers or family members.

R.I.P. Windows XP 2001-2014. What can you do now?

radiorahim — Sat, 05 Apr 2014 23:06:23 +0000

Microsoft's "Windows XP" operating system, first introduced in August, 2001 reaches its official "end of life" on April 8, 2014.

After that, Microsoft will stop issuing patches, bug fixes and updates for this 13-year-old computer operating system. At present, depending on whose statistics you believe, 20 to 30 per cent of the world's PCs are still running Windows XP.

In defence of online anonymity

radiorahim — Tue, 27 Aug 2013 04:36:00 +0000

Every time a mainstream news media outlet bans "anonymous" online comments a debate opens up somewhere about the nature of online anonymity.

Recently the Huffington Post made a decision to move in this direction starting next month. Despite its leftish pretensions, the Huffington Post is part of a multimillion-dollar online publishing empire. It was purchased by AOL two years ago for $315 million.

May 3 is International Day Against DRM: Stop the Hollyweb!

radiorahim — Fri, 03 May 2013 05:35:29 +0000

For some time now, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the non-governmental organization that governs the web has been working on a new set of standards called “HTML5”.

When done properly, standards are a good thing. Having standards means that no matter what web browser or computer you're using, you can view and interact with content on the web.

Over the years, one of the things that has been particularly irritating, has been the requirement for computer users to install various third party browser “plug-ins” in order to view certain types of content. Often, these plug-ins, although “free of charge,” are not free in the freedom sense.

Is that music, video or e-book certified DRM-free?

radiorahim — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 04:41:45 +0000

What big media corporations call “Digital Rights Management” (DRM) and digital freedom activists refer to as “Digital Restrictions Management” has long been the toxic sludge of digital music, video and e-books.

With DRM, corporations impose digital locks on digital media and on digital devices that restrict what you can and can't do with that media or device.

In 2005, Sony BMG used DRM software on their music CDs, that secretly installed a rootkit on computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system that seriously compromised the security of countless numbers of machines.

Dear cool apps: Why are you spying on my phone calls?

radiorahim — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 18:41:43 +0000

Guest post by Michelle Langlois

I got a new smartphone seven months ago, and it's a pretty handy little gadget. I'll never get lost again since I have a map that can pinpoint my location down to whether I'm in the front or back of my house. I downloaded a banking app that lets me check my balance, pay bills, and transfer funds whenever I want to do it. And, of course, I can tweet, foursquare, play Frozen Bubble, and watch YouTube any time I like.

Apple's outrageous licensing terms for the iBooks Author software

radiorahim — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:22:56 +0000

What if Microsoft demanded a 30 per cent cut of your speaking fees if you happened to make use of a PowerPoint presentation in your talk? What if you used Photoshop to edit your photos and Adobe only allowed you to sell your creations through their online photo store? Sound crazy? That's what Apple is up to with their new iBook Author software.

This Raspberry Pi sure tastes good!

radiorahim — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:28:59 +0000

The first 10,000 Raspberry Pis will be coming off the assembly line in the next few weeks. What's a Raspberry Pi, you ask?

It's a little $25 single-board computer that's about as powerful as a typical smartphone. The project is the brainchild of Eben Upton of Cambridge University who co-founded the Raspberry Pi Foundation. The foundation is a registered charity in the U.K.

While the first batch of Raspberry Pis are expected to be snatched up by hackers, computer geeks and electronics hobbyists, the ultimate aim of the project is to get these cheap little computers into the hands of schoolkids.

Steve Jobs was no Jack Layton

radiorahim — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 02:00:30 +0000

I'm always saddened to hear about the passing of anyone before their time.

The recent announcements of the premature deaths of two very public individuals has brought wall to wall media coverage, very public displays of mourning along with speculation on the future of their life's work.

Having never been a fan of the empire that Steve Jobs built, I posted online wondering when this fawning coverage would end. Someone remarked sarcastically that it would last about as long as the coverage of Jack Layton's passing.

Fed up with Facebook? Ticked at Twitter? Diaspora* is up and running!

radiorahim — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 23:00:51 +0000

Last winter, I wrote in this space about Diaspora*, a new free software-based, decentralized, privacy-aware social networking service developed by four computer science students at New York University.

At the time, Diaspora* was in the very early "alpha" stage of development and access to the service was by invitation only.

Right now, there are probably a couple of dozen "Pods" (servers) up and running on the Net and for all intents and purposes, Diaspora* is open for business!

What's different about Diaspora*?

How patent abuse crushes innovation

radiorahim — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 02:22:25 +0000

"When Patents Attack!" is the title of a recent episode of This American Life, a program produced by Chicago's National Public Radio affiliate WBEZ Radio. This one-hour episode is an expose of a new and parasitic industry that's burst on the scene in recent years, namely the "patent troll" industry. It also takes a look at the current patent war under way between the giants in the tech sector.

The Freedom Box: Make technology that supports freedom. Turn freedom on!

radiorahim — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 03:58:24 +0000

I've been meaning to write this post for a long time, but like many of you I've been wasting far too much time on Facebook. Facebook has been dutifully logging all of my posts, photos, personal messages etc. They mine my personal data and display ads for ham radio and electronic parts companies, Linux web hosting companies, Wordpress training and even the occasional ad for a social justice organization. Facebook's data mining software knows me as a somewhat geeky lefty. Not bad.

Over the last year plenty of things both good and bad have taken place using the power of both social networks and mobile devices. We've seen millions in the streets of Tunis, Cairo, Athens, Madrid and now even Tel Aviv demanding social and economic justice.

The Fox and the rotten Apple

radiorahim — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 02:06:24 +0000

This month saw Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation team up with the Apple Computer Corporation to launch the world's first digital-only newspaper called The Daily.

This newspaper is not available on the web at all. It's solely available as a paid app for the Apple iPad for US$39.99 a year, or US$0.99 per week. This new iThingie-only newspaper will have its own staff of approximately a hundred journalists.

Personally, I don't give a rat's ass what Rupert Murdoch puts out. I'm not going to buy it.

Apple is out to screw you

radiorahim — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 04:30:59 +0000

Apple Computers, already well known for crushing end user freedom on their devices, has hit a new low.

According to this blog post on iFixit.com, Apple has begun replacing the standard "Phillips" screws on the cases of new iPhone 4's sold in the U.S. with "Pentalobe" screws. They've apparently already done this to iPhones sold in many parts of the world.

Wikileaks no longer trending on Twitter? We need a new social network!

radiorahim — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 08:07:32 +0000

Although Twitter has denied reports that they are blocking the "#wikileaks" and "#cablegate" hash tags from their list of "trending topics", the important thing to remember is that they can if they want to.

And, although Facebook has not shut down Wikileaks related accounts, they can if they want to as well. In the past, Facebook has closed accounts used for union organizing and for promoting things like breastfeeding.