Older blog entries for kilmo (starting at number 55)

23 Jun 2003 (updated 20 Jul 2008 at 11:13 UTC) »
18 Jun 2003 (updated 14 Feb 2004 at 19:21 UTC) »

Today, Hamakor, the Israeli FS and OS NPO have released a reply to some article presented in "ha'aretz" newspaper. The newspaper has each Tuesday a section dedicated to the Internet, called "Captain Internet". Yesterday, someone asked where from he can download mandrake 9.0. Instead of giving him a link, or saying, use 9.1, the captain started telling the usual crap about Linux (lack of Office, no Hebrew support, etc.).

Well, Aviram Jenik wrote a short reply, and sent it to the captain, and asked the Israeli Linux users to send them a request to publish this as the community's reply... well, I am part of the community... so I send them the mail... but I started it with the most obvious literature piece which is relevant to the situation:

O Captain! my Captain! Our fearful trip is done,
The Linux has weather'd every rack, the Hebrew we sought is won,
The office is here, it's open I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady kernel, the vessel grim and useful,

But O heart! heart! heart!

  O the bleeding drops of ink,

    Where on the deck my Captain lies,

      Fallen wrong and mistaken,

This is of course the opening of "Oh captain! my captain!" by Walt Whitman, after few changes in the relevant places.

Well I must admit that the Hebrew support is still a bit lacking, and my diary of yesterday proves that even after 5 years around, some things are hard to achieve, but still ... Linux is a great system after all.

17 Jun 2003 (updated 20 Jul 2008 at 11:14 UTC) »
9 Jun 2003 (updated 14 Feb 2004 at 19:24 UTC) »

The open source and law conference at the Haifa university was rather surprisingly interesting. Even though I slept only 4 hours tonight, I didn't lose concentration.

The main speaker was a Prof. from Yale Law School. His major is digital rights, and has a very good understanding of the open source and FS communities. He explained the basic concept of FS and OS to the audience (avoiding the differences between the two, concentrating more on the shared opinions and objectives). He also gave some economical reasoning for his idea.

Afterwards gby presented the "Ha'makor" point (the Israeli FS and OS NPO) and showed similarities to the law making. His talk was quite short, and it seemed quite good. Still I had the feeling he is sucking up a little bit the the Prof.

Another person from the Interdisciplinary center (IDC) in Hertzelya gave a talk about his ideas of FSOS, and it seems that he has a very unique point of view on the subject. I mostly disagreed with him, but I don know if this is due to his opinions, or the fact he gathered some of the data he used during the 20 minutes coffee break (like asking mulix and gby how much time they spent in OS advocacy during the week.

Then we had a discussion. It went well. Someone from the Tel Aviv university (Dept. of Industrial Engineering) said the usual stupid things on OS and FS (not good enough, not secure enough, etc.). Of course the geeks section wanted to answer all together, but we agreed I will answer him, so I started to answer another point he said, and then all the law people in the room started calling me a "cheap demagog" well I agree, but if they let me continue I would have explained my sayings. Then, there was a discussion about the security of OS and FS against propriety software.

The final topic was DMCA and UCITA related, and after the lecturer have spoken about his point of view, I asked the legal audience to help us in assuring that similar laws will not pass in Israel, as they seriously threaten OS and FS.

8 Jun 2003 (updated 20 Jul 2008 at 11:15 UTC) »
31 May 2003 (updated 20 Jul 2008 at 11:17 UTC) »
26 May 2003 (updated 20 Jul 2008 at 11:17 UTC) »
25 May 2003 (updated 20 Jul 2008 at 11:17 UTC) »
18 May 2003 (updated 20 Jul 2008 at 11:17 UTC) »
12 May 2003 (updated 20 Jul 2008 at 11:17 UTC) »

46 older entries...

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