Links October 2014

The Verge has an interesting article about Tim Cook (Apple CEO) coming out [1]. Tim says “if hearing that the CEO of Apple is gay can help someone struggling to come to terms with who he or she is, or bring comfort to anyone who feels alone, or inspire people to insist on their equality, then it’s worth the trade-off with my own privacy”.

Graydon2 wrote an insightful article about the right-wing libertarian sock-puppets of silicon valley [2].

George Monbiot wrote an insightful article for The Guardian about the way that double-speak facilitates killing people [3]. He is correct that the media should hold government accountable for such use of language instead of perpetuating it.

Anne Thériault wrote an insightful article for Vice about the presumption of innocence and sex crimes [4].

Dr Nerdlove wrote an interesting article about Gamergate as the “extinction burst” of “gamer culture” [5], we can only hope.

Shweta Narayan wrote an insightful article about Category Structure and Oppression [6]. I can’t summarise it because it’s a complex concept, read the article.

Some Debian users who don’t like Systemd have started a “Debian Fork” project [7], which so far just has a web site and nothing else. I expect that they will never write any code. But it would be good if they did, they would learn about how an OS works and maybe they wouldn’t disagree so much with the people who have experience in developing system software.

A GamerGate terrorist in Utah forces Anita Sarkeesian to cancel a lecture [8]. I expect that the reaction will be different when (not if) an Islamic group tries to get a lecture cancelled in a similar manner.

Model View Culture has an insightful article by Erika Lynn Abigail about Autistics in Silicon Valley [9].

Katie McDonough wrote an interesting article for Salon about Ed Champion and what to do about men who abuse women [10]. It’s worth reading that while thinking about the FOSS community…

• [1] http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/30/7130899/tim-cook-proud-to-be-gay
• [2] http://graydon2.dreamwidth.org/193575.html
• [3] http://tinyurl.com/nretmhm
• [4] http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/on-jian-ghomeshi-and-the-presumption-of-innocence-830
• [5] http://www.doctornerdlove.com/2014/08/the-extinction-burst-of-gaming-culture/
• [6] http://shweta-narayan.livejournal.com/204154.html
• [7] http://debianfork.org/
• [8] http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/14/6978809/utah-state-university-receives-shooting-threat-for-anita-sarkeesian-visit
• [9] http://modelviewculture.com/pieces/autistics-in-the-silicon-valley-2
• [10] http://tinyurl.com/o6d8yu8

Syndicated 2014-10-31 13:55:52 from etbe - Russell Coker