’Til All Are OneFreedom is the right of all sentient beings |
This blog has moved!
|
Two different tests, one same outcome. Things that make you go hmmmm…
| Which Transformer Are You? |
 You are Optimus Prime! Take this quiz! |
I AM 64% OPTIMUS PRIME
LotD: Transformers: The Game
George Orwell’s classic allegory, Animal Farm, presents many perspectives on human behaviour and society. One of these is how people can be led and manipulated through the control of information. In the story, the Seven Commandments formed a de facto constitution for the Animalistic society. Since only a handful of animals could read, the rest were dependent upon what they were told was written. Gradually, the writing was cunningly altered to the benefit of the pigs above all other animals, and the populace was taught to not trust their recollections of what was written in the past.
What made this subversion possible was the inability of most animals to read. The two animals that could read (aside from the pigs) chose not to do anything about what they saw. Amongst other things, the right to access and read information is an important cornerstone of democracy.
This is where open file formats come in. As our lives become increasingly defined by electronic records, there needs to be a way for independent viewing and auditing. Paper is easily read, but computer files require software to decypher them. Imagine if you needed special (and expensive) glasses just to read the letter that you yourself wrote only a few years ago.
There has been a fair amount of discussion in the press regarding the OpenDocument and the so-called ‘Open’ XML formats. The primary focus of this reporting thus far has been on the political and technical facets. This is slowly changing, as the importance of long-term data preservation and freedom of information become apparent to ordinary folk.
The BBC has published a report on the problem, and discusses how the UK National Archives are attempting to deal with it. Alas, it appears that they have opted for a short-sighted approach, relying on virtualisation of older operating systems and applications, through a direct partnership with Microsoft. With this approach, the format decoders/viewers (not to mention the operating system and software performing the virtualisation itself) remain closed in source and specification, and one must deal with a cumbersome virtual machine just to view a document.
Where is the guarantee that files can be read hundreds of years from now, just as we can do today with paper documents such as the historic Magna Carta? How does this partnership benefit me, an ordinary citizen who might wish to view ten- (or even two-) year-old public documents that are only available in a proprietary electronic format?
It’s both sad and frustrating to see that history is yet again repeating itself. Whilst the contents of the Domesday Book can still be read nearly 1000 years after completion, the digital BBC Domesday Project was rendered virtually unreadable a mere 16 years later.
Thankfully, there are efforts to create an infrastructure for long-term preservation and management of digital documents. To start with, there are open formats such as OpenDocument and PDF. The Australian National Archives have long been supporters of OpenDocument, to the extent that they are standardising upon it. Putting their money where their mouths are, they are building a completely open source (GPL, no less) data managment system that anybody can use or improve to suit their needs. Michael Carden gave a great talk [Ogg video] at this year’s linux.conf.au about this technology, known as Xena [PDF]. Whilst their UK counterparts seem to have forgotten that access to data is not just a privilege for those able to make exclusive agreements with purveyors of lock-in technologies, the Australian National Archives have been striving to ensure that nobody is left out of the digital revolution.
Four legs good, two legs… better? Let’s prevent this subversion from happening.
"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings." — Optimus Prime
This one throwaway line in the new Transformers film is in fact homage to the original Transformers series. As observant readers of this blog may have noticed, I am quite a fan of the Transformers multiverse, particularly of the 1986 animated film (amongst other things, it has an awesome soundtrack and some great vocal work). Optimus Prime was a childhood hero of mine, so this motto has always struck a chord with me.
It also makes me wonder, if the Autobots are such strong advocates of freedom, are they themselves programmed with Free Software? Conversely, are the Decepticons proprietary?
What do you do when you’re in the city and need to kill some time? Watching a film sounded like a fair option to me. The cinematic masterpiece (!), ‘Epic Movie‘, caught my eye. I wasn’t expecting much from it at all, so I placed myself into Low Expectations Mode™, gritted my teeth, and went in. It went according to plan, with the LEM buffering me somewhat from almost-certain disappointment.
One thing struck me, however. I was sitting through the closing credits, and I noticed an attribution to a character named ‘Steve Irwin‘. That’s strange, I thought. I didn’t remember a Steve Irwin character. The closing credits were punctuated by short video clips, each followed by a change in music as the standard credits scrolling returned. A minute later, the screen flickered for a split-second, the credits returned, and the music suddenly changed. Did they cut something out? At the end, there was still no sign of Steve.
Was the Steve Irwin scene removed somewhere between the film studio and Hoyts? It could not have been done by the studio - the cut was far too amateurish for that (although I might be giving them too much credit, given the mediocre quality of the film). While I understand that Steve Irwin died not too long ago, in my opinion that is no excuse for anyone to tell me what I can and cannot watch. The cinema probably calculated that the risk of public backlash from maintaining the scene would be greater than the opposition to censorship. If so, they were probably right. That still doesn’t change the fact that I paid money to view a title that has been rendered incomplete at the (likely perceived) behest of extremists.
Censorship has its place in society, but this is going too far. Within reason, a free and open flow of information is the hallmark of a healthy democracy. Of course, the perceptions of what exactly ‘reason‘ is is debatable, and that’s what lies at the heart of such debates. I prefer to err on the side of openness, in the same vein as ‘innocent until proven guilty‘. I don’t like being told what to think, and what I can view. If I wanted that, I’d be using Windows Vista with all of its Digital Restrictions Management nonsense.
There’s always the chance that I’m completely off the mark with my accusations. I’d appreciate it if someone could verify/dispel my claims.
The unholy combination of work and study have devoured me over the past month.
One point of mention is an interview I had with James Purser for Open Source On The Air. Having never been interviewed before, I was rather nervous. I was also waiting to be accepted or declined as an Ubuntu Member at the Community Council meeting, which only increased my anxiety. It also didn’t help that it was past 10pm, and I was suffering from a lack of sleep. If I sound dopey, please keep those points in mind. With that disclaimer announced, I think I conducted myself quite well.
In other news, I’m glad to hear that my nomination of Elkbuntu for the Linux Australia People’s Choice Community Member of the Year Award (wow, that’s a mouthful!) was heeded. Congratulations, Melissa! I am looking forward to drinking that beer!
Link of the day: Paris Hilton vomits while singing
They say that the first step towards dealing with an addiction is admitting that you have one. For that purpose, I have a confession to make: I am addicted to Open Source On The Air. For the uninitiated, OSOTA is a weekly Internet radio programme hosted by James and Karin Purser. Being based in Australia, this podcast focuses mainly on issues affecting the Australian FLOSS community. It is broadcast live on Wednesdays from 21:30 (UTC+1000). Besides being a great show in its own right (even if downloaded afterwards), I love how I can hang out in #localfoss on irc.freenode.net and provide input while the show is running live. It is this sort of interaction that makes free software so great.
A few weeks ago, Karin decided to announce a competition. The question was simple: to suggest a question for a future competition. An idea sprung to mind fairly quickly, and I mentioned it over IRC to James. I neglected to e-mail it, however, and when Karin announced the following week that she had not received any entries, I realised that I had completely forgotten my idea. The ephemeral nature of IRC meant that I couldn’t just look it up (my logs were only short-term - curses!). I spent a day and a night wracking my brain before it resurfaced. I posted it to James, and the following week it was announced that I was a winner! Mind you, there were only two entries, and both were deemed to be winners 
The following week, I received my loot: a plush Tux penguin and an O’Reilly Linux Anatomy poster. At the request of James, I sent him a photograph of myself with my new penguin friend. Fittingly, it was taken just prior to a SLUG meeting, and in it I’m wearing my Software Freedom Day 2006 T-shirt.
So what was my entry? It’s probably best that I don’t spoil the surprise. Stay tuned for it to be announced on Open Source On The Air!
This is quite disturbing:
A 2006 Gallup survey of American public opinion found that "many Americans harbour strong bias against U.S. Muslims".
- 22% say they would not like to have a Muslim as a neighbour.
- 34% believe U.S. Muslims support al-Qaeda.
- Only 49% believe U.S. Muslims are loyal to the United States.
- 39% advocate that U.S. Muslims should carry special ID
The fact that such a large percentage of the population harbours resentment against Muslims may explain much of America’s aggressive Middle East policy from Israel to Iraq. It’s a lot easier to play with the lives of millions of people if you don’t think of them as civilised human beings, but terrorist supporters.
This appears to be consistent with other studies:
The Media and Society Research Group of Cornell University conducted a survey in November of Americans with respect to their attitudes towards Muslims. Nearly half (44%) of respondents favoured restricting the civil rights of Muslims in some way.
Such attitudes often stem from ignorance. It is exceedingly easy to dehumanise a race/religion/culture if you know nothing about them:
A survey commissioned and published by National Geographic shows that a large majority of young Americans between the age of 18-24 are geographically illiterate.
Less than 15% of the subjects could locate Iraq or Israel on a map. Only 17% could locate Afghanistan, even though the survey was carried out after the war. 11% could not locate the U.S. on a map.
Now, I am not posting this to pick on Americans. In fact, I feel that at least to some extent these results also apply to Australia and other Western countries (e.g. the UK). We like to think of ourselves as ‘enlightened’ societies, yet the ignorance many people appear to exhibit is astounding. There is much in the way of misinformation and FUD being spread around, intentional and otherwise. The solution, I feel, is education. For instance, I bet that the average Australian knows very little about Islam: its beliefs, its history and the cultures surrounding it. It is all to easy to judge people and events by our own values, the principles by which we were raised. People need to understand that what may look like ‘common sense’ to them is in fact a cultural construct, and that other cultures may see things differently. This diversity is what makes the world interesting, and this abundance of different views is what has propelled human development since the very beginning.
Those who like to argue that Islam is a backwards religion or that its people celebrate an anachronistic culture ought to investigate the 1001 Inventions Web site:
A unique UK based educational project that reveals the rich heritage that the Muslim community share with other communities in the UK and Europe.
1001 Inventions is a non-religious and non-political project seeking to allow the positive aspects of progress in science and technology to act as a bridge in understanding the interdependence of communities throughout human history.
Pia has very eloquently indicated the divide between religion and culture, and in doing so I feel she has demonstrated how truly close many world religions are in their core beliefs and values.
Unlike my last post, this one is serious. One of my favourite podacsts, The Linux Link Tech Show, interviewed RSI expert Deborah Quilter. The phenomenon of RSI has risen to prominence in recent years, largely in response to increasing computer use. That puts tech workers such as myself in considerable risk of developing injuries, and in fact I am certain that I have developed some already. Ignoring the problem only makes it worse. Anyone who works at a desk should listen to this interview and heed at least some of its warnings and advice.
The episode is available in Ogg Vorbis and MP3 formats.
Are you aware of the condition known as Service Support Termination Trauma (SSTT)? View this Novell Public Service Announcement to find out more.
Klepas pointed us on IRC to a brilliantly-done film explaining the concept of Trustworthy Computing. It concisely and clearly demonstrates why so many of us in the FLOSS world prefer to call it Treacherous Computing.
Unfortunately, the producers decided to make the film available as a Sorenson-encoded Quicktime file. I find it amusing that people who oppose digital restrictions are using such a highly-proprietary video format. Fortunately for us, there is a DivX/MP3 version (still not as good as Theora or even XviD, but it’ll do) available at Google Video.
Once you have finished viewing it, head on over to Against-TCPA for more information.
