martedì 28 novembre 2006

Un articolo interessante di PeaceLink sulla storia dei video "indegni" reperibili su google video (link). Riporto qui qualcosa.


Quindici anni fa, con alcune persone che amavano la libertà e credevano nel valore della nonviolenza, ho fondato PeaceLink, una rete telematica per la pace.

Chi le scrive pertanto è strutturalmente contrario ad ogni tipo violenza, tanto alla guerra di invasione quanto al bullismo nella vita quotidiana. Ripudio ogni sofferenza inflitta a un'altra persona. Mi sono quindi naturalmente indignato di fronte ai video diffusi su Internet che riprendono un ragazzo autistico subire ripugnanti soprusi in un istituto tecnico superiore di Torino.

Tuttavia la terapia che è stata scelta - ossia inquisire i rappresentanti di Google Italia - mi sembra peggiore del male che si vuole curare. E non ho per nulla condiviso la sua opinione secondo cui i siti Internet debbano essere equiparati a testate giornalistiche. Lei ha affermato:

"Ritengo che la decisione della procura sia un motivo in più perchè il Parlamento riveda l'assetto normativo in materia. Come ho più volte sostenuto non possono esserci due pesi e due misure, uno per carta stampata e tv e uno per la rete internet. Il rispetto della dignità umana è uno solo". E ha aggiunto che "il principio di responsabilità non può essere declinato a seconda del mezzo di trasmissione su cui viaggia un reato".

Tutto ciò non porta da nessuna parte, come le "gride" contro i "bravi" di manzoniana memoria.

Se lei consultasse qualche esperto scoprirebbe che Internet è così articolata da farsi beffa di queste dichiarazioni.


Scorrendo un po' piu' giu' si legge ancora:


Fra qualche ora, nella notte, non potremo controllare l'utente che scriverà sul nostro sito. Potremo a posteriori rimuovere un suo messaggio ma non potremo a priori bloccarne la diffusione. Potremo cooperare per riportare dignità nella rete ma non possiamo bloccare i polpastrelli e i neuroni di chi si collega a noi.

Gentile Ministro, la sua scelta di equiparare Internet alle testate giornalistiche non è efficace per lo scopo che lei si propone, se lo faccia dire da chi ha cognizione della materia.

La sua dichiarazione è solo frutto di scarsa esperienza. E un Ministro non può farsi guidare da un impeto di passione sorretto da una sostanziale non competenza in una materia che non padroneggia.


Questa per finire mi sembra davvero la parte migliore...


Occorre responsabilizzare profondamente le famiglie e gli insegnanti, non può essere Google a controllare al posto di un genitore che ha rinunciato a svolgere il suo compito educativo. Non può essere il gestore di un sito a intercettare alle due di notte (e come mai farà?) l'upload di un giovane diseducato ai valori civili e umani, che evidentemente vive in una scuola superficiale, indifferente e formalistica che non si accorge della mostruosità e della violenza che cova dentro di sé.

Il problema è questo: quel giovane potrà anche non fare l'upload ma in ogni caso avrà violentato, o maltrattato un altro essere umano, e vietare un upload non significherà aver ridotto la violenza o aver restituito dignità a chi è stato sfregiato nell'animo e nel fisico. Potremo rompere gli specchi che riflettono la realtà ma - ciò facendo - non avremo sradicato la violenza, ne avremo eliminato solo il riflesso.

domenica 5 novembre 2006

Microsoft, Novell, RedHat, Oracle and so on... some important parts!

At a press conference in San Francisco (11/2/2006), Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Novell CEO Ronald Hovsepian announced a new partnership between Microsoft and Novell. The unprecedented deal will have Microsoft offering a degree of sales support for Novell's SUSE Linux while both companies work towards better interoperability between their respective operating systems. As part of the agreement, Microsoft also promises not to wield its patent portfolio against SUSE Linux.

Red Hat Calls Microsoft-Novell Deal Over Linux ‘Unthinkable’ - Link

According to The New York Times, Suzlik (chairman and chief executive officer of Red Hat) said that Microsoft recognizes Linux as a “core component of information technology infrastructure.” He also called Novell, a “weakened and vulnerable” company, that was attempting to gain market share in the Linux market.

On its web site, Red Hat branded the Microsoft-Novell deal with one word: “UNTHINKABLE"

"It was inevitable," Red Hat said. "The best technology has been acknowledged."

Red Hat: We will be here in one year, Novell will not - Link

The big mistakes companies and employees make is to be focused on stock price in the short-term. These guys made noise. Larry Ellison had the effect he wanted to have, and our stock price went down. But let's see where we all are a year from now. We will still be standing. We still believe that we will be the dominant player in the Linux market, because by that time there won't be any other Linux players.

Ballmer's new weapon against Linux is...Linux - Link

What I learned, once I got to my computer, was that Novell and Microsoft have agreed to do what the market has already been forcing them to do: interoperate and not sue each other. Am I missing something? Oh, yes. "Sales support." I'm not yet sure what that means, but I guarantee it doesn't mean doing anything to promote Linux, as Ballmer said:

"If you want something, I'm still going to tell you [to buy] Windows, Windows, Windows."
He has a fiduciary duty to sell Windows, Windows, Windows, and to partner with whatever companies he thinks will help him sell more...Windows and with those that help him kill...Linux.

Why did Oracle choose to dump on Red Hat? Because Red Hat is a perceived threat. Why? Because Red Hat is dominating the Linux market. In related fashion, Microsoft is partnering with Novell because it gives them a way to show good faith to customers without actually impacting its business negatively. Does anyone really think Microsoft would do anything to jeopardize its Windows business? Of course not.

I left Novell precisely because the company refused to play hardball with Red Hat. Its mixed source message sends mixed signals, and has long given Red Hat free rein to woo customers and dominate the market. A Faustian bargain with Microsoft isn't the way to revive Novell's chances. It needs to lead, not follow, and certainly not follow the monopolist it fought for so long. Novell has been doing great things in the data center, and has a solid and growing cadre of name-brand companies buying into SUSE Linux. This is the message it needs to be trumpeting. It needs to be pushing, not shelving, innovative open source projects like Hula and iFolder. Instead, it keeps retreating into its proprietary, legacy past under the guise of "mixed source" and interoperability.

The road to the Microsoft tax is paved with Novell's best intentions - Link

Poor Novell. You're like Fontine in Les Miserables, forced to sell yourself by indigent circumstances. You should have tried open source, instead. Some rather like it. Like, for instance, those of us who live in The Independent Republic of Open Source.

sabato 4 novembre 2006

Unfortunately my GNU/Linux box is a PowerPC and I had the privilege of finding all sorts of strange Fluendo bugs on PPC... in order the gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3 plugin consumes much more CPU (about 22% against 7%) than the standard mad plugin for gstreamer (found into the gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly collection), fluendo-mp3 is licensed under the MIT license (mad library is instead GPL) and finally seems that also the audio quality is better with mad!

So, MAD is REALLY better than FLUENDO on PPC!

mercoledì 1 novembre 2006

Mac OS X (Tiger and Panther) Network Install from a GNU/Linux server

You can do it with or without setting up a DHCP server. If you want to do it with a DHCP server, you can try to apply this http://www.geeklan.co.uk/?p=26 to your GNU/Linux box. I decided to forgot DHCP because I'm just installing to one iBook.

1) First you'll want to setup a TFTP server (I used the debian atftpd but I know it works also with tftpd-hpa package) and an NFS server (I user the nfs-user-server package).

2) The default location for the TFTP server root on my system was /tftpboot. It may be different on other distro, so of course, change at will. But this directory is where we're going to put all the important files. Three files come from the Mac OS X disc (although you'll have to rename two of them) and the fourth is a simple image of the Mac OS X disc itself.

3) Mount the CD/DVD and copy and rename the following files into your TFTP server root:

cp /cdrom/System/Library/CoreServices/BootX /tftpboot/BootX
cp /cdrom/mach_kernel /tftpboot/mach.macosx
cp /cdrom/System/Library/Extensions.mkext /tftpboot/mach.macosx.mkext

4) Unmount and make a simple image of the Mac Install CD/DVD in the TFTP server root.

dd if=/dev/hdc of=/tftpboot/macosx.img

5) For your NFS server, you'll want to modify /etc/exports (or wherever your exports file is) to include something like the following:

/tftpboot/ mac-ip-address(ro,insecure)

where mac-ip-address is that which was assigned to the mac manually or by the DHCP server.

6) Of course, at this point, you'll want to start the TFTP server and NFS server.

7) Boot into open firmware (by holding command+option+O+F) and issue the following commands:

setenv boot-device enet:ip-address-of-linux-server,BootX
setenv boot-args rp=nfs:ip-address-of-linux-server:/tftpboot/:macosx.img
boot

Where ip-address-of-linux-server is... self-explanatory. The familiar boot up sequence should start except now you have a little spinning world as it tries to make a connection with the Linux server. You'll probably want to hold command+V while booting the Mac to see what's actually happening and to assure that the whole process went smoothly. That... should work. I hope that helped!