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/_______ /|____(____ /__| |__| |__|\___ > /\___ >____/|__|_| /
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| \ __ / /_\ \/ /_\ \/ /_\ \ > <
| || || |\ \_/ \ \_/ \ \_/ \/ -- \ Giving you the heads up
|___/_ ~~ _\\_____ /\_____ /\_____ /\______ / on everything console.
|_||_| \/ \/ \/ \/
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14 July 2013 -- slartie -- Final NEWSLETTER ISSUE 0008
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===============================================================================
WARNING ^ IT'S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD
===============================================================================
If you're easily offended by foul language or views on a particular
matter, which might not agree with your own, you should probably get the
fuck out of this document right now. Seriously.
===============================================================================
INTRO ^
===============================================================================
In this issue I'm using less profanities than usual. I'm not sure what
went wrong, but I'll make an effort to adjust my language for the next
one.
Dicks.
===============================================================================
CONTENTS ^
===============================================================================
WARNING (It's for your own good)
INTRO (You just came from there)
CONTENTS (You are here)
TOPIC 01: RMS is a dick (But also awesome)
TOPIC 02: Get on IRC (That's where the fun is)
TOPIC 03: Ubuntu isn't GNU/Linux (Maybe)
TOPIC 04: Links (Places to visit)
CLOSING (Final thoughts)
ABOUT (About the author)
LICENSE (Because we all need one)
===============================================================================
TOPIC 01: RMS IS A DICK ^ BUT ALSO AWESOME
===============================================================================
Richard M. Stallman is quite the guy. People either love him or hate
him. Both of which with no small amount of passion. There are those who do
neither, but that's simply because they haven't heard him speak yet. There
really isn't a middle ground.
He made the world a better place with FSF and GNU. He has done a lot for
free and open source software, and basically (not single handed) made
GNU/Linux a possibility. Most of the programs needed to make the operating
system a reality, is to a large extent the doings of Richard and his posse
of merry hackers.
Linux is merely a kernel. It's an amazing one at that, but its still just
a kernel. Everything else is what makes the kernel useful. For that
Richard is an awesome human being. One who deserves a lifetime achievement
award. If one was awarded to him, he'd probably not accept it, though.
RMS is nothing short of awesome.
But he's also a dick.
The thing is. Richard is all about freedom. He will not accept anything
that limits that freedom - in any way. At first glance, this sounds
fantastic, maybe even awe-inspiring. But there's a little more to it than
that.
He takes his ideals to the extreme, and goes as far as saying that
programmers who just want to put food on the table, should stop whatever
they're doing, if the code he or she is making isn't free
software. Instead they should get another job, or just do client work. The
code may be proprietary, but it's only meant for one client and will never
be released to the public anyway.
He's like that a lot. He simply states what people shouldn't do and
brushes them off with a: 'do something else', 'don't have kids',
'Microsoft should go completely open and free their software, or
close'. '50.000+ people out of a job, so what. The world is better
off'. It goes on like that. For all the ideals RMS has, he never comes up
with any solutions. He blindly trusts the world to adjust itself, and we
all either start hugging trees, or get together in a hive mind and cure
all ills.
For that RMS is a dick. A short one, because that's funnier.
I like a lot of what he stands for. I like his take on the Swindle (Amazon
Kindle). Why in the hell should the act of saving a tree be worse on my
freedom than buying a paper book? You can't buy an ebook 'anonymously'
like you can in a bookstore, you can't share it with a friend, or give it
away. You have the ebook, and you're stuck with it. If Amazon wants to get
rid of a book, they can push the big red button, and your book no longer
exists. '1984' was deleted from people's Kindles as a result of a
publisher dispute with Amazon. I think they call that irony.
So I like a lot of what the man says, but because he is so single-minded
about it, and doesn't offer up any concrete solutions, he's on the dick
list.
Richard. If you ever come across this, give me some examples of what the
world can do to make the transition from proprietary closed source
software to the free software and still put food on the table. Feel free
to make a real world business case where you outline where cuts would have
to be made, where and what changes would be necessary, and how the company
could stay competitive as a free software endeavor.
And, no, you can't just give me the: "do client work". Their money has to
come from somewhere, and we wouldn't want to halt innovation, right?
===============================================================================
TOPIC 02: GET ON IRC ^ THAT'S WHERE THE FUN IS
===============================================================================
One of the older ways of communicating online has gone a bit by the
wayside after we got forums, webchats, sms, skype, ventrilo and so on. IRC
or Internet Relay Chat, is a text only communication service that does one
thing, and does it well. Send text between a client and a server.
'But I spend a lot of time on IRC', you might say. Sure, but how many of
your friends do? They use Facebook messenger. Surely, there's nothing
wrong with Facebook messenger? One thing. It isn't very social. It's a one
on one chat. IRC can be that as well, but most of the fun happens in IRC
channels. Rooms where a bunch of people get together and talk shit about
Justin Bieber or that n00b that just got pwned in whatever multiplayer
game that has people riled up at the time. Or indeed anything else under
the sun.
In the mid 90s IRC was huge. On any given IRC network you could find
channels like #Hungary, #Amsterdam, #Sweden, #London, and so on. Groups of
people belonging to a particular country, area or city would have a
channel where they could hang out, make friends, get together for parties
and so on. Having scanned 5 of the largest IRC networks available today,
most of that has disappeared in favor of 10.000+ channels with 1 or 2
people sitting in them. Examples #SuxMahDix, #UShit, #FUBeotch. Not what I
would consider a step up.
While, I might be wishing for the impossible, it would be great if we
could get back to what IRC was in the 90s.
Some of my best memories are from being active on IRC in the 90s. I met
several people who I later became good friends with and we still fistbump
today. A couple of girlfriends and eventually a wife came out of it. I
divorced her 7 years later, but that's hardly the fault of IRC.
Get on IRC and meet some people. You can't go wrong with weechat or
irssi. Be a catalyst for starting a new channel in your area and see if
you can get some people hooked on the idea. I know a lot of cities in the
US are trying to do just that, and with fair success. It's great to meet
new people, so why not get together on the chat service that fits the
bill.
===============================================================================
TOPIC 03: UBUNTU ISN'T GNU/LINUX ^ MAYBE
===============================================================================
It's marketing. Nothing more, nothing less. Canonical is trying to get
away from the label GNU/Linux has gotten over the years, when the
operating system wasn't being taken all that seriously.
Those of us who have been using the operating system for years, may not
think that way, but let's face it - GNU/Linux hasn't been all that
interesting to a lot of people until Android happened. Sure, Unix/Linux
owns the server space, but user land is still ruled by the evil one. So
from that perspective, we've been irrelevant. The "Linux" part of Android
is being shushed a lot, so even there we're having trouble getting through
to people and let them know just what they're using.
Some people will still claim that GNU/Linux will never take over the
desktop. Fragmentation, ease of use, gaming and so on take the blame. Yet,
more and more people, are taking the leap of faith to give a distro a
try. Even if it's just a Live CD/USB, it's still more than what people
were doing 5 years ago.
Canonical knows this, and they want even more people using Ubuntu as their
"first try" or whatever you want to call it. But as long as Canonical
calls themselves a GNU/Linux distribution, a lot of the flak that the OS
has been getting over the years (unjustified, we have to say), will stick
and people will be apprehensive about giving it a shot.
While Canonical hasn't come out and said it outright, that's exactly why
they've removed any mention of GNU or Linux in their marketing material,
online and offline.
This is good and bad. Good because of what I just mentioned. Canonical
dodges the trolls and naysayers and give people a chance to experience how
amazing the OS is on its own terms. Much can be said about how they build
their distro, but it's damned easy for new users to get started with.
Bad because, well all mention of GNU/Linux is removed, and people might
very well not realize they're using the OS they've heard so much shit
about.
So where am I going with all of this. Canonical are douchebags for hiding
the fact that it's GNU/Linux under the hood. Canonical are clever for
hiding the same fact. Canonical have raped the Debian base and made it
into Mac OS X-Part Deux. Fuck you, Canonical.
I'm so torn. Natalie Imbruglia. You're so fine.
===============================================================================
TOPIC 04: LINKS ^ PLACES TO VISIT
===============================================================================
Stuff I've mentioned in this newsletter deserves some link love, otherwise
you'd have to step out of your comfort zone and use a search engine. Where
would we be if that was required?!
This isn't WikiPedia, so I'm only going to link to stuff I think is worth
looking at.
Richard M. Stallman [ http://stallman.org/ ]
Canonical [ http://www.canonical.com/ ]
Ubuntu [ http://www.ubuntu.com/ ]
Weechat [ http://www.weechat.org/ ]
Irssi [ http://www.irssi.org/ ]
===============================================================================
CLOSING ^ FINAL THOUGHTS
===============================================================================
A lot of shit pisses me off, but for some reason I haven't been able to
muster the anger as much this week. Maybe it's because I saw a gorgeous
girl have a wardrobe malfunction downtown earlier this week. Unintentional
boob revealing is nothing to sneeze at. She handled the "happening" fairly
well, and there was no shortage of guys wanting to help her pack
everything back up.
Until next time.
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ABOUT ^ ABOUT THE AUTHOR
===============================================================================
````...-------------......````` Slartie has been working
``...-----::////////:::----....```` with open source software
`...---:://+++++oo++++++//::---....`` and the community since the
`..-:://++ossyyyyysssssssso+//:--...` early 90s.
`.-:/+oossyhddmmmmdddddhyoo+//::-----.` `.`
`.-/+osyhhhdddmmmmmmmdhyyssoo++++/:---.`.+:` He's considered a little bit
`-::/+osssyhdmmmmNNmddddddmmmdhs+///---.:+: crazy by his peers. Mostly
`-::+osyyhdmmmmmmNmmNNNNNNNNmyo++oso/::-/s- because he likes working with
.:/oydmNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNmhsoyddmmdhys/:+s. the console so much.
./syhmNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNmddms//syooydds/++`
`:+ossssssyhmNNNNNNNNNNMmmdyo+os//shds//- His day job is (sadly one
:shdhhyoooyhdMNNNNNmdmmmddNmmdhssyhyo/-` might say) working with MS
.sdo+oyyhdhhmmdhdmdhyyhdNNNNNNNdhhhyo/. Windows clients and servers.
```/yysymNNNNNmddyyddyydmmNNNNNNNNmdhhs/.```
`````.`-osyhmNNNNNmmhsymdysydNNNNNNNNNmmdhy/.````` After hours are spent with
`.....--+yhmNNNNNNMmsoymmhssssdMNNNNNNNNmdy/--...- coding, tinkering, IRC and
:-:--://+ydNNNNNNNMy+ohmdyo+oshNNNNNNNNNmds/::--:- generally being a nerd.
::::::///smNNNNNNNMmddNNNNmmNNNNNNNNNNNNNds/::::::
///////++oyNNNNNhsso++yNMNNho++sso+sdNNNmho//:::/:
+++++++++ooymNNs:--...-/++:-...-:::-:omdhs+//::///
ooooo+ooooo+smh/-://-----:::::/+hho/:-/oo//++///++ You can get in touch using:
ssssoooooosooss/-/yNdhhhhhhmmmmmmmy/-...-:/++///++
ysssssssssssso:..:+hdysssss+++oos+/-.````./++//+++ Twitter: @slartie
yyyyssssssssss:.```.-:///:/++/++:.```````:+o++/+o+ IRC: slartie (FreeNode)
yyyyyysssssyys+.`````.-:/oyyo/:-..`````./+ooo+++oo E-Mail: [email protected]
===============================================================================
LICENSE ^ BECAUSE WE ALL NEED ONE
===============================================================================
Slartie.com Newsletter (c) by slartie
Slartie.com Newsletter is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
You should have received a copy of the license along with this
work. If not, see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/.
===============================================================================
14 July 2013 -- slartie -- Final NEWSLETTER ISSUE 0008
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Created with Emacs - http://gnu.org/software/emacs/
