Thanks to Lovely Lizzie for the tip: If you received a passport recently, you’ve probably got one with an RFID tag in it. Radio Frequency Identification tags are a chip and antenna combination that receive a signal from a scanner. When the scanner sends one a signal, the RFID tag uses the energy [...]
You remember when the BBC proposed their Windows-only media player? Now they’re doing it. On Friday, 27 July 2007 Defective By Design reported:
Today the BBC made it official — they have been corrupted by Microsoft. With today’s launch of the iPlayer, the BBC Trust has failed in its most basic of duties and [...]
Sen. Mike Gravel and Rep. Dennis Kucinich rightly identify Senators Hillary Clinton and John Edwards conspiring to narrow the Democratic Party contenders at the NAACP Democrat forum in Detroit on 2007 July 12. When the senators thought they were off-mic they had a brief but frank discussion about eliminating their competition:
Edwards: We should try [...]
In April 2003 parodies of Harry Potter were suppressed. Rowling challenged a book about “Tanya Grotter” and won. In July 2005, a Canadian bookstore sold the then new Harry Potter book “by mistake”. JK Rowling, Harry Potter’s author, allowed her publisher’s lawyers to challenge people’s right to read something they had purchased.
Richard [...]
There’s a petition to tell the government to favor free software for all publicly-funded software projects and it’s hosted on petitions.pm.gov.uk. So here’s hoping that more UK citizens will sign it before 22 July and people with power will realize this is worth implementing.
A talking point some politicians understand right away: Free software means [...]
While I too happen to agree with Moore’s points, I have to disagree with weighing someone’s “personality” (and I’m not sure what, exactly, that means) rather than the substance of what they say. It suggests a lack of priorities I find dangerous on important issues of the day—we’re dealing with life and death issues [...]
Today’s Democracy Now! has a very recommendable hour with Ralph Nader on corporate criticism and how paid off our elected officials are. Free software activism, potable water, clean air, launching wars of aggression (and the lack of punishment); every issue you can think of suffers as a result of corporate dominance in our culture [...]
I happened across a blog post discussing a dilemma between “my capitalist “do-what-you-want-with-your-money” ideals with my free software ideal “omg-you-don’t-know-what-you-are-doing-with-your-money.””. The poster concluded that he “ultimately, [believes] in choice.”. It’s a good thing that this blog entry says there are better free software arguments. I’ve heard better arguments too, so I’ll try [...]
GNU Software Freedom Law Center FSF blogs Electronic Frontier Foundation Nina Paley