Notices by Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com), page 3
-
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Friday, 07-Sep-2018 03:27:26 UTC 
Mike Gerwitz
#LibrePlanet2019 will be March 23-24 in the Greater Boston Area in MA:
https://libreplanet.org/2019/
This is the one event that I must make it to each year, and I encourage everyone to attend and see the faces of many that are at the heart of the free software community.
Consider submitting a session! Or, if you can't make it but plan on watching online, maybe help someone else attend by contributing to the travel fund. The call for sessions ends October 26th.
I'll be attending again this year, and I plan on submitting a session proposal. I won't have the time to do my 100+hr research talks like the past couple years, so maybe I'll fall back on something more technical that I won't have to research.
It's still a ways off, but if you do plan on attending, do let me know so I can say hello! -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Monday, 09-Jul-2018 02:21:47 UTC
Mike Gerwitz
The EFF helps to defend a language teacher against #patent abuse, which they argue as invalid under Alice:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/07/effs-help-language-teacher-responds-ridiculous-patent-threat
They further used it as an example to Congress on how disastrous bad patents can be.
I love seeing stories like this: I support the EFF with membership not only because of the good, important work that the do at a policy and activism level, but also because of the work they do in defending the rights of individuals and small groups that would be unable to do so themselves. -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Saturday, 12-May-2018 02:40:05 UTC
Mike Gerwitz
The @fsf is hiring for a contract position for the development of #GNU #LibreJS:
https://www.fsf.org/news/contract-opportunity-javascript-developer-for-gnu-librejs
Now this is interesting. I look forward to seeing the results. Please apply if interested! -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Friday, 11-May-2018 17:26:52 UTC
Mike Gerwitz
@sixhohsix
> Ubuntu developers have given back to the free software world in code and design. Ubuntu has brought Linux to an increasing number of users. And it puts its users first instead of politics.
If we generalize this argument, it's a common one: Open source expanded the reach of free software, thereby providing freedom more broadly to users, so is that a good thing?
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html
It is good that more are using free software, but it's a shallow "win": what good is freedom if it isn't realized? What are the benefits of free software to users who don't even realize that those freedoms exist? It degrades itself to a technical benefit---a development model; which is precisely what open source is.
It's good that Canonical has given back much to the free software community, but it's important to consider the issues separately: their contributions to free software, and their efforts to undermine it. One is good and should be praised. The other is bad and should be strongly condemned.
> Which includes things that free software has failed to provide. Like Minecraft [...]
I just want to mention Minetest (and derivatives)---I've made a number of posts about how I use it with my children, and how much fun they have with it. Also see:
http://www.ocsmag.com/2016/04/04/mining-for-education/ -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Friday, 11-May-2018 00:54:29 UTC
Mike Gerwitz
https://social.mikegerwitz.com/url/37790
https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/bb20.jpg
This is very disappointing to see. The screenshot shows "You're ready to go!", followed by "You can use 'Software' to install apps like these:". The apps they list, in left-right top-down order, are: VLC (free), Skype (non-free), Spotify (non-free), Slack (non-free), Discord (non-free), Corebird (free), Mailspring (free), GIMP (free), Minecraft (non-free), Android Studio (non-free), Ora (non-free), Notepad-Plus-Plus (free), Tusk (free), Brave (free), and IDEA Community (free).
That is 8 free and _7 non-free_. Also in the screenshot on the left is an Amazon icon.
We've known #Ubuntu to do these things for a while now, but I grow increasingly disappointed with each release. Ubuntu also encourages the use of proprietary software through "snaps", and advertises non-free software by default through their package repositories unless you explicitly check a box (at least in previous version) during installation to use only free repositories. -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Wednesday, 25-Apr-2018 03:56:28 UTC
Mike Gerwitz
I didn't discover until a few months ago that #VLC has support to playing YouTube videos by URL. I had always used youtube-dl, even if I just wanted to stream a video quick. (YouTube's website is a proprietary web app that does not work without non-free JavaScript.)
Life is simpler now. -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Wednesday, 25-Apr-2018 03:32:36 UTC
Mike Gerwitz
If you don't like typing "git" dozens (or more) times a day, I created short 2--3-character commands for Git with Bash completion support. I've been using it for a number of years, and haven't really told many people about it:
https://mikegerwitz.com/projects/git-shortmaps/about/
When the cwd is a Git repository, rather than typing `git commit -m foo`, you'd just type `c -m foo`. `git commit --amend` would be `ca`. `git rebase --interactive` would be `Ri`. `git pull` and `git push` are `P` and `p` respectively. And so on. Simply typing `?` will list all of the commands. And tab-completion works as expected with all of these, as if you were using the long Git commands.
This helps my fingers keep up with my mind and makes CLI work with Git much more enjoyable. Hopefully others can enjoy it as well. -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Saturday, 21-Apr-2018 06:18:05 UTC
Mike Gerwitz
Stayed up late learning a little bit about some #Minetest and certain mod APIs to fulfill the requests of my two children: one dragon that "shoots" (spawns) ghosts, and another orange dragon that shoots oranges.
I don't have time to re-learn 3d modelling with Blender, so we just modified textures of existing dragons of one of the mods during the day (in #GIMP), which they had fun with. I did some hacking during the day, but I needed to do too much research, so it was hard to keep them engaged with a combination of Lua scripting and web browsing.
So they'll be excited in the morning. I added other small features they won't be expecting and learned (from code) some gameplay features we were unaware of. Maybe they'll get interested in hacking it themselves if I show them how easy it is to make certain tweaks, and if factor any new code I write in such a way as well. -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Sunday, 15-Apr-2018 18:15:35 UTC
Mike Gerwitz
It's difficult to have useful conversations about mobile tracking when people say "your phone / mobile device tracks you". The phone is just a computer.
The networks that you connect to can spy on you---your cellular network, bluetooth, wifi, etc. To help mitigate these threats, you can disable those communications until you are in a safe place that you don't mind others knowing about. This can really only be guaranteed with a hardware switch---iOS now lies to its users when they ask to disable those communications, for example.
The software running on your device spys on you: the operating system itself often spies; the apps you install often spy. This is the fault of the individual _authors_---_they_ are the problem. Consider using free/libre software that empowers you and serves _you_ rather than its creators; it's much harder to hide secrets in free software. On Android, consider using only free software available in F-Droid. We also need fully free mobile operating systems, like Replicant and hopefully Purism's Librem 5 that is still under development.
Call out those that do harm---don't veil and protect them using statements like "your phone tracks you". Talks about the specific issues. Demand change and have the courage to reject them entirely. That involves inconvenience and sacrifice, but if we're strong now, then in the near future, perhaps we won't have to make any sacrifices, much like the fully free GNU/Linux system desktops we have today. -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Sunday, 15-Apr-2018 02:05:22 UTC
Mike Gerwitz
Watching some #LibrePlanet 2018 videos for sessions that I wasn't able to attend. Looks like most/all of them are posted now:
https://media.libreplanet.org/ -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Sunday, 15-Apr-2018 01:39:16 UTC
Mike Gerwitz
Anyone subscribe to Mozilla e-mails? I forget what list. But they provide links that are nothing but a long unique identifier, which I can only assume to be unique per recipient. Further, they mask the actual destination, which is a security risk. I have never followed one of the links in the e-mails, which is unfortunate, given that some of them do sound interesting.
I have replied on a couple of occasions asking them to please stop doing that, but I haven't received an acknowledgement. Indeed, I'm not even sure if it goes anywhere. Maybe others can speak up as well. Or maybe someone seeing this message is or knows a Mozillian to forward this concern to. -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Sunday, 11-Feb-2018 04:02:16 UTC
Mike Gerwitz
An interesting story/article describing how much information can be obtained through very basic traffic analysis of a "smart" home's IoT devices:
https://gizmodo.com/the-house-that-spied-on-me-1822429852
Someone with more experience could derive far more information.
#privacy #security #iot #metadata #iwillnotspendtimeinyoursmarthome -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Tuesday, 16-Jan-2018 03:21:50 UTC
Mike Gerwitz
I just saw this; wtf:
https://www.aldi.co.uk/reka-decorative-santa-cam/p/080878180257400
This is not okay; this teaches children that surveillance is okay in even the most intimate places---that inescapable surveillance is okay.
A similar argument can be applied to Elf on the Shelf, though this product is more blatant.
#surveillance -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Saturday, 18-Nov-2017 16:32:04 UTC
Mike Gerwitz
...my wife is watching TV and I just saw a commercial for #Firefox, advertising speed.
I never expected to see an FF commercial. Fascinating. If only we had people willing to donate money for informational commercials on a brief introduction to the values and benefits of software freedom, directing them to fsf.org or gnu.org, or a site that's specifically designed to serve as a landing page for that commercial. -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Wednesday, 25-Oct-2017 02:27:10 UTC
Mike Gerwitz
@fsf The phrase "Free as in Freedom" is more meaningful today than ever before. We often talk of users being "robbed" of their freedoms by non-free software, but many users aren't provided the opportunity to have something to be robbed of to begin with. Nearly everything users do is controlled and surveilled by corporations and governments as a feature, by default. Non-free software exposes and exfiltrates the most intimate aspects of our lives---it explores our thoughts, sits in our living rooms, and understands us better than we understand ourselves. Children are exposed to and taught to love and accept these software and devices before they can even crawl.
I've never felt more liberated by #freesoftware. But I've also never felt more concerned and sympathetic for users who are caught up in all of this. Most users don't even know that there are things to be concerned _of_, let alone where to even begin, despite the best intentions and predictions of many within our community.
And I've also never felt more compelled to do something about it. -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Sunday, 15-Oct-2017 01:54:25 UTC
Mike Gerwitz
Pornhub is using facial recognition (and other methods) to index people in videos:
https://social.mikegerwitz.com/url/30018
The article brings up important points. Porn actors often have different identities. What about amateur/revenge porn? This is a much more intimate example of the privacy threats that already exist. People seem to care a lot more when it affects them on such an intimate level, even though this is already being done in non-pornographic settings.
I've been thinking for well over a decade about people who place themselves in porn videos---be it professionally, or just for fun---and how their lives will one day change when everything they have ever posted online, even if it was a lifetime ago, is indexed and searchable. Privacy can't be retro-active---technology is advancing at too great of a pace. By the time you know to be concerned, you've already lost. And there's nothing you can do about that. -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Saturday, 09-Sep-2017 04:58:35 UTC
Mike Gerwitz
#GitHub is a plague. You can't fork without non-free JS. You can't send pull requests without non-free JS. And now I find you also can't attach files without non-free JS to comments.
I made a fix to a Minetest mod for my son so it'd stop crashing the server, and I have no more time to devote to getting around this bs. I wanted to send a ~3-line patch. I ended up opening an issue and putting the diff in the body of the comment.
People advocate GitHub to make collaboration easier. Well, I just spent orders of magnitude longer trying to send the person a patch than I did debugging and fixing the issue in the mod. -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Saturday, 29-Jul-2017 01:24:16 UTC
Mike Gerwitz
Watching an MSNBC interview with Kaspersky and others. There's long been suspicion---Kaspersky Labs being a Russian company---that they can't be trusted. There's numerous classified investigations in the US directed at Kaspersky.
The reporter stated to a former FBI assistant director that Kaspersky offered the source code to the US for review. The response was that that's great, but is that what he is really providing?
This is a world that the free software community will soon be completely immune from with reproducible builds---and we're nearly there. There would be no doubt that some source code is actually what produced a given binary.
Of course, offering the source code for review is another concept we're immune from---we already have it. It doesn't matter that Kaspersky Labs is a Russian company (to me): they're still proprietary. I can't trust them, nor could I trust anyone else who asks me to run their nonfree software. What kind of security is that? -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jul-2017 06:02:56 UTC
Mike Gerwitz
Just two days before the #DayAgainstDRM, the #W3C approves DRM for the Web (EME) without even a commitment to defend security researchers:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/07/amid-unprecedented-controversy-w3c-greenlights-drm-web
https://social.mikegerwitz.com/url/25959
Watch for an appeal. -
Mike Gerwitz (mikegerwitz@social.mikegerwitz.com)'s status on Friday, 30-Jun-2017 04:43:55 UTC
Mike Gerwitz
Girl Scouts will be issuing 18 "cybersecurity" badges:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-girlscouts-idUSKBN19C29G
There aren't any details; I'm curious to see what they entail, especially considering the age group. But technology and online skills are life skills, so it's good to see organizations catching on.
All Bobinas P4G content and data are available under the 