Jan 28 2010
The Free Software Foundation guys are ready to remind us the real threat that iPad furthers:
The iPad’s unprecedented use of DRM to control all capabilities of a general purpose computer is a dangerous step backward for computing and for media distribution.
Yesterday a group of FSF volunteers set up “Apple Restriction Zones” along the approaches to [...]
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Sep 28 2009
I’ve been listening to the conversations about Mono since this summer. I was waiting for the dust to settle before I started re-reading the various comments but the dust is not settling and the protagonists of the summer name-calling-fest are still busy pointing fingers at Richard Stallman for stating his opinion.
Stallman’s position is pretty clear [...]
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May 19 2009
In a recent discussion with friends I realized that tivoization is a sub-optimal world to describe the problem that the Free Software community has with freedom being controlled by those that control the hardware. The word clearly targets one specific company, so the problem gets somewhat reduced in scope. The real issue is not limited [...]
Apr 17 2009
Did you think Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) can be good for society? If that’s your opinion, you better start looking at facts. Ars Technica reports that
Some Kindle users are angry because Amazon blocked them from their Kindle accounts, thereby blocking them from accessing their already-purchased media. Even if these stories are exaggerated, they once again [...]
Apr 06 2009
Apple’s iPhone biggest innovation is its mobile app store: for the first time it allowed installing software on the mobile device with the convenience of any modern GNU/Linux distribution. Like in Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, installing software is just a matter of browsing a repository and click on a button. It’s such a good idea that [...]
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Apr 02 2009
The debate on health records data is starting also in US with the new federal government plan to spend $19 billion to spur the use of computerized patient records.
In Milan, where I live, the regional health system requires me to carry around a digital ID card that allows for doctors and farmacists identify me. Until [...]
Jan 22 2009
Scott Mc Nealy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, has been asked by the new Obama administration to prepare a paper about ‘open source’. From what I read on the BBC report, though, he is using a tired losing proposition:
The secret to a more secure and cost effective government is through open source technologies and products.
To me [...]
Jan 21 2009
I still have Obama’s inauguration’s speech in my mind, so full of passion and hope. It’s such a powerful word, hope.’ What most impressed me was his call to politicians to stop bickering and get to work to reform politics.’ This morning I read a post of Mitch Kapor, about the interconnection between politics and [...]
Jan 20 2009
So, in the end, the Mono hackers have worked overnight to make it possible to watch the official Obama inauguration on Moonlight, the free software implementation of Microsoft’s response to Adobe Flash. Good or bad, I don’t really know. I pity the hacker that had to work overnight to overcome the bad choice of the [...]
Jan 07 2009
The MacWorldExpo started with a sweet sweet victory for FSF’s campaign DefectiveByDesign: all the songs sold on iTunes by the music majors will be available without any Digital Restrictions Management scheme. This is a big moment for our movement, it shows that we are right, we are on the right track with this campaign to [...]
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