Boycott Novell Protesters Manhandled In India 360
James Mathew writes "This is an interesting story from Kerala, India, where the ruling Communist Party organized a national conference in its efforts to hijack the Free Software Movement, which has enviable roots in the state. They got Novell to sponsor it. On the second day of the conference, a few free software activists who displayed posters against Novell were manhandled by the organizers and police — typical of what is expected from them. Most of the snaps taken during the scuffle were forcefully deleted by the organizers, after seizing the protesters' mobile phones. Still they couldn't delete all. Here is another blow-by-blow account."
Communist software (Score:5, Funny)
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OK, this is a WTF moment. Since when is the Indian National Congress [wikipedia.org] a communist party? I mean, sure, they could be described as centre-left, but probably less to the left than most major northern European parties, and you don't hear them being called communist parties.
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Cheh, never mind. They're talking about the state government. My mistake.
SW Patent Pact put Novell outside the community (Score:5, Informative)
This incident does bring up the question of what we will do when a government, NGO, or criminal group like the Mafia decides that Open Source software belongs to them and that people must pay a fee to them for using it...
Which is precisely what you have here. M$ tried via SCO to scuttle Linux. It turned out that SCO hadn't a leg to stand on [groklaw.net]. So, enter the Novel-M$ SW Patent deal [groklaw.net] where de Icaza and other receipt-carrying M$ Boosters inject proprietary technology into otherwise free and open source projects. Novell differs from SCO in that this time around there is a trail of receipts showing that yes you do owe M$money for their products even though they were readily available for download.
People have been good about readying the licenses for the main packages, but de Icaza and co. target the libraries and other components that these packages are built on. Combine that with a marketing team that hangs around Slashdot and goes after sites like Boycott Novell [boycottnovell.com] and they have made some headway. To be sure, Mono [infoworld.com] wastes a lot of space on the Ubuntu installation CD. Space which could have been used by Free Software. So even without the sw patent deal, Mono is technologically unsound.
Then there are Novell's attacks against OpenOffice.org and the OpenDocument Format. But that speaks for itself.
At the beginning it was simply described as a stupid move [itworldcanada.com]. Novell/M$ is a problem that is getting worse, mostly due to the noise they make and the interference they cause in free and open source projects. The patent pact put Novell outside [practical-tech.com] the free and open source software community. The actions since then have only proven this to be more so.
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I removed any trace of Novell from our department when they signed their patent-pact with Microsoft - a clear preparation of an attack on Free Software. I do get asked by people, because of my position and background, for advice on which distribution to go for. I always caution against Novell products and, because I owe it to clients and friends, I explain why I am against the company rather than just leave it as uninformed prejudice.
As to Novell people hanging around on Slashdot, I'm quite sure they do
Re:SW Patent Pact put Novell outside the community (Score:5, Interesting)
I really don't see why this is being modded up.
Yes, I understand that you have some vitriolic hatred toward Mono and consider developers working on it to be a source of wasted talent on what you consider to be a useless piece of software. So what? Others disagree and happen to like Mono for whatever other reason.
Novell is in an interesting position, where they started out as proprietary software developers and developed a rather rock solid business model that gave them some huge piles of cash for awhile. The world shifted and frankly Mircosoft is largely to blame for the fact that the earlier businesses that Novell was involved with died a hard death. Novell even tried to compete with offering a better product and using hard-nosed sound engineering principles, only to get shafted by Microsoft when they deliberately put in software that would screw up the Novell network protocols into their Windows OS suites.
I could get into more, but Novell certainly isn't "in bed with Microsoft", and in fact has found a rather interesting way to insulate itself from Microsoft's tactics: embrace and join with the open source software movement. I think it is a stinking genius move on their part, and without moving to supporting open source software, Novell would no longer even exist as a company... or certainly would be looking at auctioning off most of their office furniture (as they already have).
Novell here is the victim of Microsoft harassment, and the reason they are acting they way that they do is precisely out of sheer survival and based on their history.
Furthermore, this still doesn't justify why it was necessary for these protesters to be jerks and disrupt a conference, exhibiting behavior that wouldn't be acceptable in any other "free" country elsewhere in the world either. If this had happened at a technology conference in Las Vegas, I wouldn't have expected anything different (or perhaps the LVPD would be a little more rough).
"piracy" only helps M$, hurts FOSS (Score:5, Insightful)
So-called piracy only helps M$ against FOSS [latimes.com]. See this 2006 LA Times article:
Advocating piracy [timesonline.co.uk] in order to undercut competitors has carried M$ through the decades even now:
The only way for the market situation to get better is to avoid any and all use of M$Âproducts, including "pirated" ones.
Sadly (Score:3, Insightful)
The pictures don't show anything and any people quoted would have vested interests.
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Well, I can imagine the scene. Someone holds up a poster during a presentation, blocking the view of the people behind them. They make some sort of noise to get attention, when the organizers attempt to removed them, they don't budge which causes the police to get involved, when he doesn't leave then, they drag him out. Then they realize it was just a publicity stunt and attempt to delete the pictures of the people apparently filming it. And here you have the Sensational headlines- communists man-handle pr
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"Then they realize it was just a publicity stunt and attempt to delete the pictures of the people apparently filming it."
And that's when they go too far. No. matter. what. happened. Who cares if it's a publicity stunt? The policy should just bring their own cameras. Sure people like me would bitch about the Orwellian state, but it would help solve the problem.
Re:Sadly (Score:4, Insightful)
Are you trying to say that the Indian police is a gang who's members raped and killed the protesters prior to setting their houses on fire and throwing them out ? Or did you mean that videotaping a police officer arresting a criminal shouldn't be allowed ? Because, after all, the video in question didn't show the protesters actions, but those of the police.
Extra points for absurd escalation, from "protesters blocking someone's view" into "an arsonist gang who initiates new members with rape and murder". Nothing like a ludicrously disproportional analogy to add flavour to an incoherent argument - that's why I love Slashdot :).
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Yeah. I expected a bit more substance.
Alternative Viewpoint (Score:5, Insightful)
Free Software activists start a protest on private property, are asked to leave by owners/organisers and forgo negotiation, instead opting for point-blank refusal. This leads to a confrontation because both of both parties being excessively stubborn.
Sounds like 50/50 blame split to me.
Re:Alternative Viewpoint (Score:5, Insightful)
There shouldnt be any freedom of speech limiting withing groups which both support open and free software.
Why not? Open source and free software events have rules and agendas like any other meeting. And participants have limited time to get the job done they came for.
If participants or protestors won't shut up and keep disrupting the event, they should get kicked out by security. It doesn't matter who it is or what message they are pushing, and it doesn't matter whether it's in the US or India.
Re:Alternative Viewpoint (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's say this was a Open Source and Free Software meeting and all they promoted was proprietary software. Would protesting that be fair?
That's exactly what they're doing according to Groklaw and even Novell themselves ,
Remember that Novell helped Microsoft get OOXML approved and Novell forked OpenOffice.org as soon as it moved to GPLv3.
Of course don't forget that Novell make their own version of Microsoft's SilverLight but they call it Moonlight. It's free to download but you have to download it from Novell to get patent indemnity... it exploits loopholes in GPLv2 in order to remove open source rights. To quote Miguel...
So this is what Novell want to make Open Source. These protesters stood up for the spirit and the letter of the GPL. Good on them!
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Let's say this was a Open Source and Free Software meeting and all they promoted was proprietary software. Would protesting that be fair?
They can protest all they want, just not on other people's property.
Furthermore, how dare your promote free software at an open source event? Don't you understand how evil free software is? I think we should banish all free software-related events from open source meetings!
Remember that Novell
You know, I really don't give a damn. Novell contributes a lot to FOSS, and th
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If participants or protestors won't shut up and keep disrupting the event, they should get kicked out by security.
Why don't you read what actually happened instead of making up your own version and commenting about it?
From what I can tell, all the protestors did was put up flyers and banners. The Novell reps then told the organizers that the organizers would not be getting their sponsor money if the banners and flyers remained up. The organizers then demanded that the protestors take them down; the protestors refused. The organizers then decided to call the cops and forcibly remove the protestors, the banners, and any visual documentation of their actions.
So, basically the protesters disrupted the event and got the cops called when they refused to stop?
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Thats not the point. There shouldnt be any freedom of speech limiting withing groups which both support open and free software.
Without a clear report of what really happened there it's impossible to decide where the blame lies, but if the protesters actually disrupted the conference, you could argue that they were limiting the free speech of others.
In the end, it's the organiser of the conference who decides what talks and what sponsors will be accepted. If you disagree, you can always organise your own conference.
On the other hand, if the protesters were merely wearing anti-Novell T-shirts or protesting outside, and not actually i
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That was rented out to an organization promoting a specific cause.
Boycott Boycott Novell (Score:5, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Boycott Boycott Novell (Score:5, Funny)
Man, you say "fuck" a lot. You're Sean Connery's distant relative or something?
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That's the most retarded fucking thing in the world. If you don't like Mono, just don't fucking use it.
He criticized a piece of software, your carrying on like he insulted your god(s), Get a grip...
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Have you noticed your browser is pointed at SlashDot?
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He criticized a piece of software, your carrying on like he insulted your god(s), Get a grip...
There's a reason they're called OSS zealots.
1capitalized : a member of a fanatical sect arising in Judea during the first century a.d. and militantly opposing the Roman domination of Palestine
2: a zealous person ; especially : a fanatical partisan <a religious zealot>
Re:Boycott Boycott Novell (Score:4, Insightful)
The point is, these guys aren't actually contributing anything. Instead they just sit around and criticize fucking awesome hackers. Mono is really fantastic software. If you don't like it, just don't use it.
In other words: it should be about the code, not the politics.
Re:Boycott Boycott Novell (Score:4, Interesting)
I think your missing the point.
Novell is being productive and an asset to the open source community while the best the protesters will do is stop that. They are claiming to be helping the OSS community by chasing the developers, hackers and supporters away. That's sort of like giving your baby up for adoption to a family financially and morally worse off then you are and expecting it to have a better life.
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What restrictions are the inflicting? All the I am aware of is that they don't forward something they don't have control over to others. That's not inflicting anything, the danger is already there, the only difference is that on one specific use, one specific company won't sure their customers. Nothing in the novell MS deal stops me from suing Novell's users if my patents are found in the products, nothing stops Sun or HP or the patent trolling company of the month. The patent deal isn't inflicting anything
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Your the one making the assertions that they are there. You need to support your claim. If you can't support your claim, then we have to take Novell at their word in that they aren't there. Me proving the opposite of your claim is just ridiculous, that would be like me saying your
by that reasoning (Score:5, Insightful)
By that reasoning, you should boycott anything Linus or the BSD community produce: when those projects started, their kernels and tools were under considerable legal uncertainty. AT&T and other vendors claimed lots of copyrights and patents. You also shouldn't use Java because Sun has numerous patents on Java.
Open source has always been pushing the limits on patents, copyrights, and cloning, and open source has always been rubbing powerful vendors the wrong way. If anything, the legal situation surrounding Mono is better than it was for Linux or Java: with Mono, we have a public commitment from Microsoft that the core is free (the core that FOSS Mono software actually uses), and nobody has been able to identify patents that read on the core language, libraries, or runtime.
The only reason people get pushed out of shape about Mono is because of the Microsoft connection. But let me tell you: the original UNIX overlords were just as nasty and monopolistic and people still adopted Linux and made it a success.
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.Net isn't what new Linux development should use.
Quite right. However, Mono is a good platform for new Linux development.
Meanwhile we've got Python and Ruby applications
Python and Ruby are nice scripting languages, but their C implementations absolutely suck. For example, both lack reasonable threading.
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BoycottNovell - the sad truth (Score:5, Interesting)
Look, zealous protesters on private property and zealous policemen aside, Roy Schestowitz is just a kid with massive amounts of time on his hands and a grudge the size of Ireland. He's an unemployed college dropout who lives with his parents (I'm not kidding here) and his credibility level is less than zero. Occasionally he'll write up something interesting, but with his seemingly 24/7/365 posting activity (just head on to COLA [google.com] to get an idea) most of what he writes is just self-referential gobbledygook of no value whatsoever. Six or seven thousand-word-plus posts per day? No way.
Anyone who thinks Microsoft made Hans Reiser kill his wife [boycottnovell.com], claims he turned down a "six figure" job because they asked him for a Word document [boycottnovell.com] or posts things like [digg.com] these [digg.com] shouldn't be taken seriously. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, and that's what he banks on. The rest is really just his inexperience, insane hatred and child-like demeanor showing through.
That blog is nothing more than an endless stream of misrepresentations, thinly veiled lies, witch hunts [boycottnovell.com] and weird "THIS IS WHAT YOU SHOULD BE SCARED OF" prose, accentuated by what I suppose he thinks are "funny" photoshopped images of people and things he thinks are out to get him. A few days ago he wrote up a storm about all the journalists he estimated had been "bribed" by Microsoft because they got evaluation laptops with Windows 7, and a few of those people actually humoured him by stopping by and explaining why they wouldn't throw away decades of journalistic experience and reputation for a $2,000 laptop, but he just ignored them. Hey, he's right and he knows it.
Linux.com featured [linux.com] an article by Bruce Byfield on this. Roy has a retinue of about half a dozen hanger-ons why post up a storm whenever and wherever anyone criticizes his abrasive "advocacy", which can be seen clearly there... don't miss the fact that our very own favorite troll [slashdot.org] is also chummy with him (I mean if you needed an excuse). It seems he does these days [slashdot.org] is post [slashdot.org] links [slashdot.org] to Schestowitz's blog with his fourteen accounts anyway.
I'm sure it's important to keep an eye out for Microsoft and all, but by god, this guy is just bad news for the FOSS community. He brings out the worst of the "OMG I HATE MICROSOFT, I AM ANGRY AND I'M GOING TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!" crowd. On purpose, I'm sure. Because the more abrasive he becomes, the more people dislike him and the more he can claim he's being "stalked" and "targeted" by the Evil Empire (TM). That kid is trapped in a vicious circle he built for himself. He needs to take a deep breath, go outside and play or something. He's so desperate and impatient to make a name for himself but he goes about it with such incompetence (volume != quality) that sometimes I think he must be sponsored by someone or something like that. Hell, he's already claiming Microsoft and Novell are directly responsible for all this.
Anyway, teh internet is serious business and all that...
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A few days ago he wrote up a storm about all the journalists he estimated had been "bribed" by Microsoft
See the comments:
http://boycottnovell.com/2008/11/09/yardena-arar-bribed-by-ms/ [boycottnovell.com]
http://boycottnovell.com/2008/11/09/harry-mccracken-bribed-by-ms/ [boycottnovell.com]
This is the most idiotic thing I've seen there yet, and I've seen plenty (although I just subscribe to his feeds, maybe it's time to stop now).
You'll notice he didn't post a retraction or an apology or anything like that.
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Let me get this straight, when Microsoft embraces and extends something (lets says html or Java) that's part of Microsoft's strategy?
And when the opposite happens, ie free/open software embraces and extends something (let's say .Net) that's part of the same Microsoft strategy too?
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You are going to have to name a real example where the free/open software community has practised an EEE strategy.
At the very least, the community always embraces. This is necessary.
Secondly, extensions are always documented. They are never kept secret or used to keep others from 'competing'. There is no real competition. There is simply different opinion. GNOME vs KDE vs Xfce vs is a matter of opinion for both developers and users. It is good to have choice.
The real problem nowadays is that Firefox's engi
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Wouldn't I have to allege that such a thing had happened first?
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These people warn about this problem.
You're presuming that they are right; I think these people are full of shit.
But whether they are right or not doesn't even matter. I don't want to hear anti-Novell or pro-Novell messages at all at open source conferences, I want people to stick to the agenda and topics that I came for.
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Oh, and I myself act trough boycotting Gnome. Their philosophy is "Make it as easy as possible, and do not care if the user wants to confgure it differently or have a choice".
So, in other words, kind of like KDE4? Especially Kubuntu Intrepid?
To any KDE people reading this: I know what you're trying to do, and I respect that. There's a lot of cool things about KDE4, and a lot of old problems solved.
But at the end of the day, it felt like "upgrading" to Vista.
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I agree. I tried it. Took 4 or so hours to compile it on Gentoo. Had to unmask many packages. Not worth the time!
I really want to use it. It looks great for the most part. It is not ready for prime time. I stick with KDE 3.5.x just as I stick with Windows XP as opposed to Vista.
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At least F77 can compile native binaries.
I'm against .NET in the sense that many of apps made using .NET code (managed code) could be made with true cross-platform code (like C, C++, even Python or Perl) or environments like Java (yes, it has patents but at least every major OS has a version). .NET is not cross-platform by any means. Theres dotGNU and Mono and a few others (Wine included) that are trying to implement .NET. Mono is at Microsoft's discretion it seems, and so far it seems Microsoft's discretio
Yep (Score:2, Insightful)
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Totalitarian communists are certainly assholes.
Pure (notice the word "pure") free market capitalists are certainly assholes.
Otherwise, its just a matter of adjustment between people with differing points of view.
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Totalitarian communists are certainly assholes.
I think it's safe to expand this statement to: Totalitarians are assholes.
non-story (Score:2, Funny)
I can't wait for the morons to appear here (Score:5, Insightful)
You know, the die-hard haters who come out of the woodwork every time Novell is mentioned, dredging up the years old Microsoft deal, which I predicted at the time would have zero impact on Linux and FOSS and have been vindicated in that prediction - except for the haters.
These people really don't give a damn about Linux or FOSS - all they care about is establishing that they're more "moral" than everyone else by opposing any interoperability deals with Microsoft. The fact that the average corporation couldn't care less and only wants some assurance that their Linux deployment will work with their Microsoft deployment is ignored by these morons. The fact that this allows Novell to improve, however small, Linux's penetration into the data center and corporations doesn't interest them either. The fact that whatever Novell agreed to in the deal in terms of "patent protection" is overwhelmingly irrelevant to any future patent cases (which so far haven't materialized and are unlikely to - and unlikely to be won by Microsoft when they do, as countless people have pointed out) doesn't matter to these clowns either.
Only their juvenile emotional well-being matters to them - and of course, damaging the emotional well-being of everyone else who disagrees with their fanaticism.
Fuck 'em.
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The fact that the average corporation couldn't care less and only wants some assurance that their Novell deployment will work with their Microsoft deployment is ignored by these morons. The fact that this allows Novell to improve, however small, Novell's penetration into the data center and corporations doesn't interest them either.
I went ahead and fixed that for you
Novell's agreement with Microsoft doesn't benefit Linux, it only benefits Novell.
Re:I can't wait for the morons to appear here (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:I can't wait for the morons to appear here (Score:4, Informative)
If MONO is GPLed, then anyone can distribute it because the GPL gives them that right. Novell is the only one offering patent indemnification which isn't the same thing. MS has never claimed they would sue anyone for MONO if they distributed the source or got it from somewhere other then novell. It is nothing but FUD when people claim Novell is the only ones who can distribute something covered by the GPL. You are taking No more of a change with Mono then you would be from any other product. If some company decides they own a patent on the product and sue you, you hit regardless of using Mono or KDE or Gnome or Linux or BSD or GCC or whatever the person makes the claim about.
Hell, the GPLv3 doesn't even fix that. All it says is that if you know about a patent covering the product, you can't distribute it unless you can distribute a license to use the patent too. If a third party declares they own something in the produce or have a patent that coveres it, your in the same boat as any other license or Mono.
Re:I can't wait for the morons to appear here (Score:4, Informative)
Seems like it's Microsoft licensed tech [thestandard.com] QUOTE:
So Novell/Microsoft use software patents to remove some/most of the benefits of OSS.
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Might I add that the patent protection deal with Microsoft, despite something I dont personally agree with has actually been helpful to get Linux into the places that have already bought Microsoft's FUD campaign, increasing Linux's market share in places it proberbly wouldn't have.
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Even if novell didn't hire them they'd still work on their projects.
Some people resigned from novell after the microsoft deal, they didn't stop working on their projects.
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Other things being equal, they're probably happier to be paid to work on their projects than not. Except for the drama llamas who stormed out, that is.
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You are equating success with market share ALONE. While companies like Microsoft believe in this , FLOSS is altogether different.
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Do you really think that once they get in-house Linux experience people won't start looking at other options? You could say most of the above about Red Hat, but there are plenty of people out there who use CentOS and Red Hat are cool with that.
If you want money spent on Linux, it has to appeal to people WITH money. Which means that money has to be spent on it to ensure proper support. Which needs corporate backing. Linux would have no where near the market penetration that it does without Red Hat, SuSE (now
Re:I can't wait for the morons to appear here (Score:4, Funny)
You know, the die-hard haters who come out of the woodwork every time Novell is mentioned, dredging up the years old Microsoft deal, which I predicted at the time would have zero impact on Linux and FOSS and have been vindicated in that prediction - except for the haters.
Yeah, but in all fairness, I think many of us forgot that you predicted that. If we'd remembered, we would definitely have kept our mouths shut.
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i'd preffer not too... one curry-fart and my penis would melt.
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Well I guess Novell could stop funding and or participating in any of these [novell.com] projects
And you appreciate that Novell went to bat for the entire Linux community by pretty much single handedly cutting off SCO's lawsuit, which if it had prevailed would have gutted Linux for the most part and pretty much put and end to the Linux movement in general? Aww that is so nice of you and yet you now bite the hand that feeds you.
With friends like you, hell no one needs enemies
Novell has, without exaggeration done more fo
MySpace/YouTube Integration is a feature emerging (Score:5, Insightful)
Lesson for next time: Use a phone with automatic blogging so the photos are off the phone and on the Net before they can stop you.
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I'm not a cell-phone/camera sort of person, so I was quire surprised to find out there is already an app [shozu.com] for doing this.
so how much of a hero are you? (Score:4, Informative)
Lesson for next time: Use a phone with automatic blogging so the photos are off the phone and on the Net before they can stop you.
"What's this? Where are the photos you took?" "You uploaded them to a website?"
Then you get to enjoy a free trip in the back of a truck to somewhere with a net connection, and then you get pushed in front of a monitor and keyboard and told to log in and delete the photos by men with guns.
Your idea is great in a country where the police won't threaten to shoot you. Even here in the US, if they don't like you enough, you'll "resist arrest" and need a trip to the hospital; it happened to a photojournalism student in Provincetown, MA when the cops didn't like him taking photos of them beating the shit out of drunks.
Why do you think NYC doesn't supply flashlights to the cops and banned its officers from carrying Maglites larger than 3 D-cells? It's because cops used them to beat the shit out of people...
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Yea but NYC didn't provide the support necessary when they banned the flashlights and the cops started using plungers and stuff. [pww.org]
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"What's this? Where are the photos you took?" "You uploaded them to a website?"
Gee, maybe if you leave the original of the photos on your phone, they'll be happy to delete them none the wiser that you copied them to the web.
Re:so how much of a hero are you? (Score:4, Funny)
Not if you post your picture to a porn photo-blog, porn does not follow the normal space-time continuum. Any image uploaded -- flagged as porn is instantaneously transferred to millions of computers at the same time. This is one of reasons the next Internet (IPv6) is being tested with free porn. If the new Internet can handle porn, we'll know it can handle anything.
others top my list (Score:5, Insightful)
The objections of BoycottNovell.com against Novell make no sense to me: Microsoft's deal with Novell hasn't affected anybody negatively, and Novell continues to make valuable contributions to the FOSS communities (note: I'm an Ubuntu user, and although I like Mono better than Java, I don't use it much).
At the top of my list of companies that claim to be open source-friendly but that actually have dangerous agendas would be Sun, Apple, and Nokia. All of those companies have big patent portfolios, deals with Microsoft, and patent deals, and they have frequently acted against the interests of open source and open standards, and we still don't boycott them. Furthermore, although those other companies talk a lot about their contributions, Novell is probably responsible for a lot more software that people use day-to-day.
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Nothing to do with FOSS/Novell ...whatever (Score:2, Informative)
Its like this...
1. The government organized some event
2. The government deployed police because there would be "eminent" people ( read "politicians") participating in the event, and need "security"
3. A firm sponsored the event.We all know what sponsored means, dont we
4. A group of protesters land up from no where, bad mouthing the chief sponsor
5. The government would be embarrassed if the protesters are not dispersed. After all, its the government, the mighty government, whose actions are beyond reproach, a
Most photos taken with digicams can be undeleted (Score:5, Informative)
There has never been a time in my life when some person of supposed authority have made any attempt to force me to delete photographs from my digital camera. Perhaps I am just not taking photos of important things. But should that happen I might gleefully comply if I didn't want to make a big deal about it.
Many digital cameras use VFAT filesystems which means their contents can be recovered. The utility of my personal choice is photorec(1). The photorec utility runs quite well on Linux. Just use /bin/dd to make an image of the SCSI disk to your HDD, run photorec with the device file as the parameter.
Photorec is written by Christophe GRENIER (no, I am not he) and can be found at:
http://www.cgsecurity.org/ [cgsecurity.org]
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Recuva for Windows also works well (it even works well in WINE, although I doubt that's recommended). I've salvaged photos and some rather important audio recorded on a cheap MP3 player that corrupted itself.
This Slashdot thread is diverting the topic (Score:3, Informative)
The event was not organized by the Communist Party. Communist Party is promotting Free Software on several occasions and they have a good stand on Free Software. The event organizers are as seen here at the event site http://nfm2008.atps.in./ [nfm2008.atps.in] Some of the organizers were not having enough exposure to the Free Software world. That actually led to the situation of Novell being the platinum sponsor of the event. The whole problem is because of the igorance of the organizers on the subject. The organizers mishandled the subject without realizing the issue, as they have little knowledge about the issue raised by us.
Our concern was about Novell, and we wanted the general public to know the truth. For that we raised the posters telling them the reasons of boycott Novell. We didnot boycott the event. We did participate the event and tried to correct the organizers and tried to pass the correct information to the public. The organizers didnt realize this and they took their position with Novell due to their ignorance. and this mishandling of this issue caused the problems.
Anyway the organizers [nfm2008.atps.in] (CP(I)M is not among the organizers ) owe an appology to free software community regarding this.
I think the way slashdot presented the issue is misleading. This is not an issue between Communist party and Free Software people.
On behalf of the protestors
Shyam K
That's how communism works, in Kerala (Score:2)
The problem is that many communists identify free software as aligned with their communist ideals, since it is competing against the bourgeois American Microsoft Corporation and others. That simply isn't true, since Free software is about freedom and not fighting the capitalists.
I have lived in Kerala for 21 years, and found the communists the most despicable political group. What they try to do in infiltrate every movement or group, and try to push ideology.
We have full fledged political organizations, eve
Good: We Are Not Communists (Score:2)
Well, I suppose this should settle this issue for all of those people who call Free Software users "communists". If the communists are beating Free Software advocates, the Free Software advocates cannot very well be communists, can they?
I support this boycott!! (Score:3, Funny)
I shall not purchase any Novell Protesters which were Manhandled in India!
We demand unspoiled protesters, dammit! (or at the very least, domestically manhandled ones-- it's better for our economy)
What's the point? (Score:3, Funny)
Isn't boycotting Novell like boycotting the horse and carriage? Does it serve a purpose?
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They weren't shot or run over with tanks. Is that what this is about?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
T.I.A.
This is India.
Hey common it would happen anywhere in the world.
Try spreading anti-microsoft pamphlets in a microsoft conference and you will be escorted out by a security team. And will be "manhandled" if you refuse to.
None of the photos show any kind of unnecessary violence. Unless those photos were deleted as said in TFA.
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Can we at least agree that they used physical force to silence the other side of the debate?
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If you are being a jerk, don't be surprised if you are treated like a jerk.
Sometimes these protesters get exactly what they are asking for, and in this case it sounds like they were begging and asking for a violent confrontation.
Unless there is evidence to the contrary, I think the physical force used "to silence the other side of the debate" was properly used.
It was the protesters who were doing the unethical behavior in this instance. There is a whole lot more to the story than what was published. I cou
Re:Anonymous Coward (Score:4, Insightful)
you are right. Protesters that chain themselves to a fence deserve to be Tazered over and over and over again. come on they chained themselves to a fence! chains can kill! the cops need to tazer the man so many time because of how dangerous he was! HE WAS ASKING FOR IT!
the following is from a previous slashdot discussion...
"this is also considered resisting arrest and in situations officers will repeatedly tazer a limp person to torture them or pay them back for making them work. This happens a lot with protesters who make 2 or more cops carry them off, One who chained himself to a fence was tazered enough times that the cop had to get a second tazer as he emptied his. The man refused to unlock himself, the cop was too pig headed to get a set of bolt cutters and drag him off and was intent in teaching the protester a lesson.
http://www.ourmedia.org/node/55217 [ourmedia.org]
http://digg.com/world_news/Police_attack_PEACEFUL_Anti_War_Protestors_with_tasers_dogs_pepper_spray [digg.com]
http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/18/1239237 [slashdot.org]
for the actual slashdot article.
Sorry, but cops and "authorities" love to physically assault peaceful protesters. It happens so much I almost wonder if they train them to do it.
Back in the 50's and 60' it was not unheard of corrupt cops being beaten severely off duty, but they also fired and blackballed dirty cops then when they discovered they were doing wrong... today they get a 3 month paid vacation and protected by their other gang members.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Police action will always make the cause more public so if you want to make some great headlines make sure that the police takes action against you.
Re:Anonymous Coward (Score:5, Informative)
In addition, they're idiots. They kill people who oppose them (Singur, Nandigram). Their so-called activists, burn, rape and pillage. I, a leftist, would choose the Congress Party of India over the CPM any day.
In addition, they have thin skins, criticising the CPI(M) is A Bad Thing. "Don't you have any respect? How dare you say something about such a respected party" No, fuck you. Lumpen crap.
Footnote: This is the case with most big things in India, the BJP and the Congress are no different, except that they don't hide what they are, and the Congress is a bit too wimpy to shut people up.
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There is some truth that all politicians and to some degree all political parties share much in common that most would find distasteful.
But in India, there is much, MUCH more diversity of main political parties that there is in the US. They really are rather different in many ways.
As an outsider looking in and watching political debates, I can share my opinion. Congress isn't "wimpy". It's just by and large more mature. In any society that values free speech, you don't need or desire to "shut people up"
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I appreciate your interest in Indian politics and the possibly more objective viewpoint you have as a person outside the country, but I really must mention a few things:
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
The police are probably twitter sockpuppets.
Re:Boycott Novell? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What a Shame !! (Score:5, Insightful)
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"...in a literate state like Kerala, where the literacy percentage is more that 90%..."
Literate? With as much as 10 % of population illiterate? OK, I get it, could be worse, but considering that three thousand years have passed since Rigveda was composed, I find this state of affairs [wikipedia.org] rather grim. Come on, you're no bloody Pakistan, are you? (OK, that was far from a good joke, I admit. ;-))
Concerning this event, though, I cannot keep from thinking that perhaps emotions simply reacted faster than brains on both sides. Now where do I get an objective, NPOV report on this quarrel? Nowhere, I gues
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I don't really see why it would be a bad thing for someone to support OSS simply because it is free. The majority of people who use FOSS will never contribute anything back to it and that is precisely on the freedoms of free and open software. In fact, there are several FOSS programs I use that the GPL doesn't even apply to me because I'm not distributing them in any way.
You have your reasons, they have theirs, and they are pretty much all the right reasons, it's just that the reasons are specific to why yo
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One sentence before some rant about a capitalist business enterprise?
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Yes, and the United States is a Constitutional Republic. And Nazi Germany was a democracy. But these are just names and labels, and don't really speak for the true nature of the state.
A communist party working in within a republic/democracy is entirely plausible, as communism has always been an insurgent governmental ideal: get into the government and take it over from the inside. You're going to have vestiges of whatever came before for quite a while. And what actually is never is the same as what is being
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You seem to have a problem with understanding what communism is. Don't worry, its a common problem in the US.
Communism is an economic system where the means of production are owned by the people, and it's profits go to the people.
Capitalism is an economic system where the means of production are owned by individuals who purchase them, and it's profits go to those individuals.
Socialism is an economic system where the government owns the means of production, and it's profits goes back to the government.
Democ
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So what if I knew something would go down in this fashion and decide to promote my cause by making a scene at some event?
I mean I could get people to show up with camera phones (don't want to be too obvious) and record the entire event and then post about it on a self promotional blitz. I would go to the event, put up some posters criticizing one of the event sponsors, maybe even hold up a sign and block the view of people behind me, then when I'm told to leave, I can refuse to do so and cause them to eithe