From mako at atdot.cc Thu Mar 1 00:20:06 2007 From: mako at atdot.cc (copyrighteous) Date: Thu Mar 1 00:20:08 2007 Subject: [copyrighteous] The Revolution Will Be Colorful Message-ID: <20070301002006.C4B324184C@volo.yukidoke.org> I forgot to mention the coolest thing about the last [Ubucon][1] in [my summary][2]. I heard that my friend Sean Moss-Pultz (the person who started the [OpenMoko][3] project) would be in New York the week of Ubucon so I managed to contact him and get him to drop by on his way to the airport so we could have lunch. To my surprise, he had one of the early versions of the free-phone for me (I wasn't expecting one for several weeks). I had brought my [OLPC][4] XO so, for the first time ever (as far as we know) we managed to get the two coolest, and most important, technology platform projects in the world together. While the [XO][4] and [OpenMoko][3] share a commitment to freedom, the similarities between the projects are, in fact, _also_ skin deep. If we all work hard, we can look forward to a future that is free. Apparently, it's also white with bright trim. ![/copyrighteous/images/xo_plus_openmoko-03-boot.jpg][5] ![/copyrighteous/images/xo_plus_openmoko-01.jpg][6] Apologies for the pictures taken from my current inferior, both ethically and technically, mobile phone. [1]: http://wiki.ubuntu.com/TheUbucon/NYC2007 [2]: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/freesoftware/20070227-00 [3]: http://openmoko.org/ [4]: http://www.laptop.org [5]: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/images/xo_plus_openmoko-03- boot.jpg [6]: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/images/xo_plus_openmoko-01.jpg URL: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/freesoftware/20070228-00 From mako at atdot.cc Sat Mar 10 00:20:07 2007 From: mako at atdot.cc (copyrighteous) Date: Sat Mar 10 00:20:09 2007 Subject: [copyrighteous] What's Wrong With My iPod? Message-ID: <20070310002007.B5054417B5@volo.yukidoke.org> Last November I wrote about [an iPod liberation party we held in Cambridge.][1] As I mentioned then, it was a huge success. [Mika][2] just got around to polishing up a short documentary video she made from footage at the event and a few interviews afterward. The documentary is called, What's Wrong With My iPod? and it acts as an introduction to DRM on iPods and what we can do about it. The video introduces the concept of DRM, the dangers it brings, and describes the role it plays on the iPod. The second half is about [iRony][3], our iPod liberation party, and [RockBox][4]. Please pass the video links around to your friends -- especially those who might not be up to speed on DRM. If it inspires you, think about running your own iPod Liberation Party ([instructions here][5]). You can view it [on blip.tv][6] (only MP4 until their converter catches up), [on YouTube][7], or you can just [download][8] the OGG theora file (also in [high quality][9]). [1]: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/projects/20061107-00 [2]: http://mika.yukidoke.org/nikki [3]: http://wiki.freeculture.org/IRony_iPod_Liberation_Party [4]: http://www.rockbox.org/ [5]: http://wiki.freeculture.org/Ipod_liberation_parties [6]: http://tripodfish.blip.tv/file/165055 [7]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bFVOU-zwTo [8]: http://ephemera.media.mit.edu/~mako/whats_wrong_with_my_ipod- lq.ogg [9]: http://ephemera.media.mit.edu/~mako/whats_wrong_with_my_ipod- hq.ogg URL: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/freesoftware/20070308-00 From mako at atdot.cc Tue Mar 13 16:20:10 2007 From: mako at atdot.cc (copyrighteous) Date: Tue Mar 13 16:20:11 2007 Subject: [copyrighteous] Free Culture at FSF Members Meeting Message-ID: <20070313162010.DB99241851@volo.yukidoke.org> While I've been making an effort in the recent past to cut down on talks -- so that I can focus on getting work done that will give me something to talk about in the future -- I'm thrilled to be giving a presentation at the upcoming [Free Software Foundation][1] [Members Meeting][2] in Cambridge, Massachusetts. While normally the members meetings are reserved for talks by the FSF board and staff, I've been invited to give a talk on my work around movement and [definition][3] building for free culture as part of a short members forum at the end of the day. I'll also be running a mini [RockBox][4] install party over lunch. You need to [RSVP][5] for the meeting by this coming Friday (2007/3/17) and, in order to do so, you need to be an FSF member. Fortunately, [joining][6] is easy to do. I won't lie and suggest that my talk could possibly be worth the membership price. Luckily, I don't have to lie to suggest that rest of the things that the FSF does are more than worth supporting with membership dues. [1]: http://www.fsf.org [2]: http://www.fsf.org/associate/meetings/2007 [3]: http://freedomdefined.org [4]: http://www.rockbox.org [5]: mailto:membership@fsf.org [6]: https://www.fsf.org/associate/support_freedom/join_fsf URL: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/freesoftware/20070312-00 From mako at atdot.cc Wed Mar 14 04:50:05 2007 From: mako at atdot.cc (copyrighteous) Date: Wed Mar 14 04:50:07 2007 Subject: [copyrighteous] UPS, I Did It Again Message-ID: <20070314045005.EBE9741627@volo.yukidoke.org> I think it's interesting that we pronounce some acronyms/initialisms but spell out others -- I've ever reflected on this [before][1]. For example, I think it's funny that we choose not to pronounce the initialism for [Uninterruptible Power Supplies][2] the way we pronounce the name of the reason we need them. [1]: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/reflections/20050118-00 [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uninterruptible_power_supply URL: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/reflections/20070313-00 From mako at atdot.cc Thu Mar 15 20:50:05 2007 From: mako at atdot.cc (copyrighteous) Date: Thu Mar 15 20:50:07 2007 Subject: [copyrighteous] Never Too Late! Message-ID: <20070315205006.0B80941757@volo.yukidoke.org> I've always thought it was a little silly that airports use their public announcement systems to give advice on how, and how not, passengers should pack their luggage. Presumably, travelers arrive airports with their bags packed. Last time I was at Boston's [Logan Airport][1], I noticed that they were repeatedly playing these announcements _in the baggage claim_. [1]: http://www.massport.com/logan/ URL: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/reflections/20070315-00 From mako at atdot.cc Mon Mar 19 17:50:05 2007 From: mako at atdot.cc (copyrighteous) Date: Mon Mar 19 17:50:07 2007 Subject: [copyrighteous] Spellign Message-ID: <20070319175005.87625416D3@volo.yukidoke.org> While everyone seems to be excited about [OpenMoko][1], there's a smaller, less proficient group of typers who seems excited about the [OpenMako][2] project. Ari Pollack even painted [a picture][3] of what that frightening, [Mako Hellish][4], world might look like. [1]: http://www.openmoko.org [2]: http://www.google.com/search?q=openmako [3]: http://priv.ebnj.net/openmako.jpg [4]: http://blog.nixternal.com/2007.02.20/after-life-by- dvorak/#respond URL: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/reflections/20070319-00 From mako at atdot.cc Tue Mar 20 16:50:06 2007 From: mako at atdot.cc (copyrighteous) Date: Tue Mar 20 16:50:09 2007 Subject: [copyrighteous] PHLanthropy Message-ID: <20070320165006.B37A4417B1@volo.yukidoke.org> Last week, I had planned to travel from Boston to Tampa with a connection in Philadelphia. I landed in Philadelphia without a problem but an ice storm descended on the airport and, after five hours of our flight's departure time being pushed back, the entire airport was closed and all flights for that day were canceled. When I arrived back at PHL the next day, two hours before the scheduled departure of my flight home -- my trip to Tampa was, by this point, called off entirely -- the airport was in chaos. Flights were still being canceled, airport information displays were inaccurate or switched off entirely and stranded travelers were everywhere. US Airways had deactivated the automatic ticket machines and there were thousands of people in scores of lines hoping for new tickets and assistance. But unlike the day before, we all knew that planes were theoretically going to be leaving and that, stuck outside, we were not going to be on them. People wanted boarding passes and they wanted them desperately. But the lines were not moving and nobody -- or almost nobody -- was going anywhere. Meanwhile, the four teams of TSA workers at the security station were standing idly talking to themselves like attendants at a light night gas station. The only people inside the terminal were those that had slept there or flown in that morning. After finding the end of a line, I asked someone what their line was for. Nobody knew, but each hoped it lead to someone who would assist with their particularly problem. Usually they merely wanted to check in. Several people I asked had been waiting in line for five hours that morning only to find out that their line was, in fact, not a line at all but merely a mass of people leading nowhere or simply dissolving into other lines. Nobody knew what else to do so, I, like everyone else, queued up and hoped for the best. An impeccably dressed and obviously wealthy woman asked what I was in line was for. I told her that I didn't know but, like everyone else, hoped it would lead to a boarding pass. She wanted the same thing. She asked if there was a separate queue for first class and I pointed out that it seemed unlikely, in the chaos, that first class was getting special treatment. I pointed out that I also had a first class ticket -- it was the only seat available when the harried agent rebooked me the day before and I had not paid extra for this, but I did not tell her this. She nodded to me in camaraderie. She stood pensively next to me for five minutes and then fumbled for her wallet and ticket. She asked me if I would hold her place in line and I agreed. Five minutes later she reappeared with a boarding pass in her hand. Surprised, I asked her how she had obtained it. She stated, quietly so as not be overhead by the other would-be passengers but matter of factly, that she'd found a baggage handler and flashed a twenty dollar bill and her itinerary. She mentioned that the man she had paid had left but that, "any of them will do it." Sure enough, I was in the terminal less than ten minutes, and twenty dollars, later. Despite growing up partially in the third world, I've only personally bribed a person [once before][1] -- also in the United States. Like my previous experience, I didn't feel good about buying my way out of what seems to have, in fact, devolved into a racket. I have spent a lot of time reflecting on the situation and my action in the last several days. Everyone, or nearly everyone, outside that the Philadelphia airport terminal had twenty dollars and most of them would have happily paid it to escape their predicament. The reason that most people did not pay off baggage workers is not because they found it prohibitively distasteful, although certainly some of them would have, but because most of us, and I include myself, would have spent the whole day frustrated, desperate, and standing line after line without even _considering_ a bribe as an option. While we know it on some intellectual, reflective level, the vast majority of us do not, in practice, imagine that we can use money as a way to manipulate people into special treatment. As a result, even in situations like that morning in Philadelphia, I simply don't even _think_ of the twenty in my wallet as a way to solve my problem. It's true that wealthy people, like the woman in line behind me, get what they want because they can pay lots of money for products and services. But it is not quite this simple. Some wealthy, powerful people get what they want in part because they think to use money in ways that the rest of us do not. Perhaps this is because this type of spending is frequently not an option for most of us or, we tell ourselves, perhaps even truthfully, because we find it distasteful and immoral. The difference between being inside or outside the terminal last Saturday was not about having or not having money. It was, in fact, about having a particular relationship to money and, through money, to other people. It was not about the value conferred by money but about a set of values that can result from having it in abundance. [1]: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/reflections/20050329-00 URL: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/reflections/20070320-00 From mako at atdot.cc Wed Mar 28 20:20:09 2007 From: mako at atdot.cc (copyrighteous) Date: Wed Mar 28 20:20:13 2007 Subject: [copyrighteous] Places I Have Almost Been Message-ID: <20070328202009.5A4B6418A8@volo.yukidoke.org> Yesterday, I passed by an offramp to [Onset][1]. Due to objections of others in the car, I wasn't able to visit. I did, however, snap this picture. [![/copyrighteous/images/offramp_to_onset-small.jpg][2]][3] [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onset%2C_Massachusetts [2]: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/images/offramp_to_onset-small.jpg [3]: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/images/offramp_to_onset-full.jpg URL: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/reflections/20070328-00 From mako at atdot.cc Thu Mar 29 16:50:07 2007 From: mako at atdot.cc (copyrighteous) Date: Thu Mar 29 16:50:08 2007 Subject: [copyrighteous] Dollar Books Message-ID: <20070329165007.6DB12418E8@volo.yukidoke.org> One of my favorite weekend activities is spending a Saturday afternoon going through the dollar book carts outside many New York and Boston area used book stores. It's not only because the books are cheap -- although I like that. The dollar book section is the great equalizer of bookstores. A neglected Dickens or Shakespeare can rub out against a discarded Mary- Cate and Ashley teeny-bopper quasi-romance novel. In the best cases, random shelving creates perfect (if unintuitive and ironic) pairs like [Run Run Run][1] about [Abbie Hoffman][2] and [Fun Fun Fun][3] about other youngsters -- a pair I found adjacent in a dollar book section last week. ![/copyrighteous/images/run_fun_run.jpg][4] But you also get to meet books you will never meet in the bookstore sections you normally frequent. The dollar book section at the Strand has introduced me to a whole class of books with intriguing non-fiction sounding titles that I had pulled excitedly off the shelf only to find out that they were, in fact, novels. There are also the books with titles so good you suspect the book will be downhill from that point. [The Complete Idiot's Guide To Being a Model][5] (not, as one might expect, _Becoming_ a model) and this [guide][6] to the British pierage are great examples. ![/copyrighteous/images/british_piers.jpg][7] [1]: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0874777607?ie=UTF8&tag =httmakcc- 20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0874777607 [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbie_Hoffman [3]: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GVGKM0?ie=UTF8&tag =httmakcc- 20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000GVGKM0 [4]: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/images/run_fun_run.jpg [5]: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0028631900?ie=UTF8&tag =httmakcc- 20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0028631900 [6]: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JD7KGA?ie=UTF8&tag =httmakcc- 20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000JD7KGA [7]: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/images/british_piers.jpg URL: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/books/20070329-00 From mako at atdot.cc Sat Mar 31 16:20:09 2007 From: mako at atdot.cc (copyrighteous) Date: Sat Mar 31 16:20:23 2007 Subject: [copyrighteous] Progress Message-ID: <20070331162011.9CC8F418AC@volo.yukidoke.org> There is cool semi-recent news on the [Free Cultural Works Definition][1] front. The board of directors of the [Wikimedia Foundation][2] passed [a resolution][3] stating that all projects (including [Wikipedia][4], [Wikimedia Commons][5], and [Wikibooks][6]): > ...are expected to host only content which is under a Free Content License, or which is otherwise free as recognized by the [Definition of Free Cultural Works][7]. There is still room for several exceptions but this must be minimal and the use of such works, "with limited exception, should be to illustrate historically significant events, to include identifying protected works such as logos, or to complement (within narrow limits) articles about copyrighted contemporary works." For WMF and it's member projects, this was a useful step because it documents and strengthens an important position in favor of explicit goals that I feel is important to successful freedom movements. But it's not a major change for them. The resolution merely codifies what has already become accepted practice within Wikimedia projects. But this _is_ a major change -- and a major victory -- for [freedomdefined.org][1] and the definition. Wikimedia projects, including Wikipedia, are the single most visible and important centers for the production and dissemination of free culture today. They're also the most successful and a model many want to emulate. Explicit buy in from WMF is a major victory indeed. [1]: http://freedomdefined.org [2]: http://wikimediafoundation.org [3]: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Licensing_policy [4]: http://wikipedia.org [5]: http://commons.wikimedia.org [6]: http://wikibooks.org [7]: http://freedomdefined.org/Definition URL: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/ip/20070331-00