Living Free – The struggle for disencumberment continues

January 28, 2010 at 9:34 pm | In Life | Leave a Comment
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Life got busy since my Last post. Holidays, and the like. But my struggle to have a free (as in Speech) and light system has continued. I got a bug under my skin around Gnome. The itch has been there for a while now and revolves around the fact that Gnome is getting bloated. now before all the Gnome fans go nuts on me let me clarify.

I tend to be a minimalist. I like my desktops small light and unobtrusive. I want my processing power for me, not for groovy graphics or worse things that are supposed to make my life simple but just end up complicating it because they are trying desperately to be too “simple”. I’m one of those weird people that LIKES the command line. I believe that a Desktop should only be a place to run my programs. not an integrated environment that tries (and usually fails miserably) to be all things to all people. I used Blackbox for years and loved it. My first computer came with 4K (Yes, that’s Kilobytes) no hard drive, no floppy drive, was black and white text only and it made me fall in love with computers (and learn programming).

Now that people have a better idea where I’m coming from (“OH, he’s one of THOSE…”) …Gnome is getting terribly bloated and on top of that there was the growing Mono controversy and talk of Gnome becoming more Mono dependent in the future and Mono is a mess, and I like Libre and non-messy (encumbered), and non-bloated…. So……. I ditched Gnome.

It took a bit of doing as it was the default install in gNewSense. But after some careful work with aptitude I’m now living happily in “Window Maker” and Gnome is mostly purged from my system. As you can see:

Screenshot

My Desktop

It is by no means ugly. Sure it doesn’t have compositing. I don’t need it to. Sure, it doesn’t auto-mount thumb drives/etc. I don’t need it to. It is quite simply the surface on which I run my applications. I like my dock and my Clip. I like the versatility and configurability of it. I like that it doesn’t force me to load Evolution-data-server (which I never use (I hate Evolution)), Nautilus, Bonobo, Gnome-panel, and various other things. All in the name of integration that I’d rather not have.

Now I have a system that run what I want, when I want, how I want. and isn’t loaded down with extras I don’t need. I’ve still got a bit of paring to do Pidgin seems a little on the heavy side I’m looking into a lighter XMPP/IRC client. Twinkle is nice, but would be nicer if there was a gtk version of it. So my Journey will probably continue.. And I’ll keep you posted.

Google’s disingenious DNS offering

December 5, 2009 at 11:00 pm | In Privacy/Security, Tech, thoughts | Leave a Comment
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I saw an announcement about Goggle offering DNS and wandered over to see what value-added scheme they had come up with. To my surprise at present it is a very vanilla DNS offering. A modern implementation of DNS to be sure but still very vanilla.

Don’t get me wrong. Vanilla is what you want in a DNS. Landing Pages and other “features” are seen as a broken DNS offering by many in the tech field (a good old NX domain will do nicely thank-you).

So, I found myself pondering.. If Google isn’t offering anything new why offer DNS. The answer is simple and obvious. TRACKING.

The moment you log in to a Google property they know who you are and can associate your IP address with your account. Heck if you are the type to click the “Remember me” or “keep me logged-in” buttons you don’t even have to log into a Google property any page with google-analytics can probably read the Google cookie and bang… Google knows your IP address and can tie it to your account.

Now if you go ahead and use their DNS server they can see that the DNS request came from your IP address which they can associate with your account and thus they will know EVERYWHERE you go on the web.

But wait.. there’s more. DNS is used by more than just the browser. They will know what messenger you use and how many hours you ran it for. If you are using a SIP client. What E-mail servers you use. How often you check them. If you are running Skype. What P2P software you use. What software on your system is checking for updates and how often. The list goes on and on.

I have become increasingly leery of Google and their pervasive tracking over the years. For me this is a step to far and shows Google’s real intention to try and track everyone everywhere. (Chromium O/S is just more of this tracking madness).

A while ago I wrote about kicking the Google habit. Now I think it is time for me and anyone that values their privacy to kick Google to the curb. My Gmail account will be set to auto respond to people to inform them of my new Address and after a week or two it will be shut down. I am going to close my Google account permanently and I’m going to file a formal request to have all my info deleted.

I hope that others do the same. It is time to stop the invasion of our lives in the name of profit. I refuse to sell my soul for a few value added treats. You should too.

Is there a place for (not so) Open Source?

October 1, 2009 at 5:41 pm | In Free (as in Freedom) Software, thoughts | Leave a Comment
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With my recent move to a totally free, as in freedom, operating system I find myself wondering about the dominance of Ubuntu. I would gladly see gNewSense jump to the top of the DistroWatch list. But I think this is probably unrealistic.

There is still far too much proprietary hardware (particularly wifi cards) that require binary blob drivers. Certainly people are not going to be happy if they have to have a half crippled computer and loose access to proprietary codecs and applications.

So, What if we think of (not so) “Open Source” software like Ubuntu and many other modern GNU/Linux Distros out there as a middle ground. As a stepping stone on the way to total freedom.

Creating this atmosphere would require a couple of things. A more declarative stance on the part of distros that include binary blobs in their kernel. “Now with an 80% free kernel…” and a much stronger declaration every time a user of such a distro installs a non free application.

I personally would like to see a set up in which every non free application throws up a large red warning stating that the application in question violates X,X and X of your essential rights, and goes on to list the possible or in some cases known threats that the closed source software poses (“This application is used to tracks your browsing habits” (Flash-nonfree), “May disclose private information to unknown parties. (we don’t know. We can’t look at the code)” (Skype, etal).

I think in this way that people would begin to understand better what they are doing, what the risks are, and why they might not want to do that. I would also like to see such warnings offer free software alternatives, such as offering Gnash when someone tries to install flash-nonfree with a explanation that Gnash respects your rights and freedoms.

Of course we would also need something to prevent people from just clicking through without reading the important information so perhaps requiring the user to type in “I agree to have my rights violated and my freedoms taken away” in order to proceed.. (well o.k. maybe a check box beside the same phrase.. But really I think having people actually type it would be more thought provoking.)

With steps like those listed above the Murky Source distros could truly claim their place. Not Free (as in freedom). But not as bad as the oppressive tyranny you’ve been living with to date.

A sort of first step out of the dungeon to let people adjust to sunshine, fresh air, and wide open spaces again. These things can be shocking and confusing to people that have been stuck in dark cell for years.

Epiphany – the overlooked browser

September 2, 2009 at 4:10 pm | In Cool, Tech, XO | 2 Comments
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When I switched to gNewSense I decided to go ahead and use Epiphany as it is set as the default browser. I am pleased to say that I was quite surprised by this browser. I admit that I was a little sceptical about using Epiphany. I figured that a lot of websites would break and that it would lack a lot of the functionality that I had become accustomed to with Firefox.

When I first started using Epiphany it seemed a little light and seemed to be lacking some of the features I had thought it had. I double checked and found out that the Epiphany plug-ins were not installed so I put those in. Once I did that it had ad-blocking on par with what one finds in various Firefox plug-ins. The plug-ins also offered several new features/functions some of which I’ve yet to play with. It would take more space then I am willing at this point to spend to enumerate them all but there is something for everyone.

In studying up on Epiphany I have found out that the plug-ins are almost trivial to write and I may take a crack at one down the road.

Epiphany renders sites quickly and accurately. It is much lighter then Firefox. I was so impressed by its performance and lightness that it is now the default browser on my XO’s Ubuntu install.

Although it lacks the ability to clear all data on exit it seems to flush cookies when you exit and the option to clear all the other data is trivial to find “edit->preferences->privacy->clear”. and does indeed clear thing up nicely. The only thing I feel it is lacking is the NoScript plug-in.

I would definitely recommend Epiphany to anyone that is looking for a fast, light, extensible, and friendly browser. I feel that this browser has been sadly overlooked and that too many Gnome based distros are doing users a dis-service by installing Firefox as the default browser.

So go ahead and give Epiphany a try.

Live Free (A.K.A living in gNewSense)

September 2, 2009 at 3:09 pm | In Cool, Life, Tech | 1 Comment
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A while ago I migrated my main laptop to gNewSense. It’s been a couple of weeks now so thought I should post my thoughts and experiences. The first thing I have noticed is that my machine seems to run faster. Not hugely so, but it definitely has more “perky” feel then Ubuntu Jaunty did. As I mentioned in my previous post moving to all Libre (or “free as in speech”) software has had a few challenges. I currently can watch just about zero flash video. Not a great loss really, and also in line with my flash reduced diet. I’m guessing version-next of gNewsense will be a little better on the flash as it will have a newer gnash installed . However as I personally dislike Flash I’ll just wait till Epiphany has html 5 support.

As gNewSense is currently based on an older version of Ubuntu than what I was using there have been a couple of minor regressions. Rhythmbox is having a old problem with some podcasts that was fixed in the more recent versions. The podcasts work. the file names just end up a little messy. Again not a biggie.

The repositories still need a little cleaning up as there are a couple of packages listed (like Revelation) that can’t be installed because they have dependencies that were removed due to the fact that they were not Libre. I know these little wrinkles will get ironed out but the above example was a little annoying to me as I was using Revelation to store my passwords and part of my process before installing gNewSense was to look in the repository and see that it would have the packages I needed. Again, not a show stopper, just annoying. I have moved my passwords to a fully Libre program and all is fine now.

The only real gotcha I ran into is that I use encfs to store personal files and one of my encfs folders (a more recently created one) had been made with encfs 6 and gNewSense has encfs 5 which was surprisingly (I jest) not forward compatible.. This meant that I needed to jump through several hoops to fix this.

The process looked like… create a new encfs folder (with gNewSense encfs 5). boot into ubuntu live, install encfs, mount both the old and new encfs folders, copy from the old encfs6 to the new encfs5 folder. delete the old encfs folder, boot back into gNewSense. Again more hassle then show stopper but something that I would have been easier to take care of before installing gNewSense.

Aside from the above few annoyances some of which are strictly migration pains and thus very temporary. I am really enjoying gNewSense. It is what I want my Linux to be. I enjoy knowing that nothing in my system promotes the problems one sees with closed source. I am one of the crowd that feels that binary blobs will if not stopped will take on a life of their own. If hardware manufacturers get the message that closed source drivers are acceptable that will be all they will produce. If however we (the community) send a clear message that we will not use closed source drivers and by extension the hardware it drives Manufacturers will produce open source drivers. Manufacturers are driven by the bottom line. they want to sell their hardware.. If given a clear message they will produce what the market demands.

Kicking the Google Habit

August 25, 2009 at 6:08 pm | In Life, Privacy/Security | 2 Comments
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With my current move towards using totally free (as in speech) software, joining the FSF (Free Software Foundation), and all the things that are driving these decisions, I find myself questioning my use of Google.

Now, before people write me off as an anti-Google nut-bar, let me clarify my position. I do not think that Google is evil or trying to take over the world. I do think that Google has become a behemoth and despite the wonderful ethos of it’s founders it is now a publicly traded company and that means answerable to the shareholders and thus the bottom line. People shouldn’t fool themselves. Google is profit driven, not peace and goodwill driven. I have watched as their privacy policies on new services have become increasingly invasive. I have seen them use their very successful model of offering “Free” services to get a large user base that they can mine. I have watched as they add ever more services to broaden the scope and breadth of their data mining capabilities.

Due to the above I, like others, have become increasingly concerned about the concentration of data. Consider if you will, what Google can learn about a person using their services:

  • What you Read → Google Books, Google news, Google Reader, Google Scholar, Google Groups
  • Who you talk to → Google Talk, Google Groups, Gmail, Okurt, Google sites, Google Docs
  • What you say,write,create → Blogger.com, YouTube.com, Google Sites, Google Groups, Google Talk
  • Where you spend you money → Google finances, Google checkout, Google product Search.
  • What you are interested in → Google search, Google Alerts, Google Bookmarks, Google WebHistory

As you can see from the list above Google could quickly build a fairly complete dossier on anyone using their services. Add to this the fact that the above list doesn’t take into account Google tracking and analytic services (which operate on thousands of non-Google sites) which I am sure benefit from people that use a Google account and fail to logout before they go browsing the web.

If a person sat and really thought about it they might well end up feeling a little paranoid and they might be right to feel that way.

As for me, I do not think that Google has any vested interest in me other than trying to get advertising in front of me (good luck guys :) ). I have long ago blocked google adsense, google-analytics, and other google tracking and advertising systems that google runs. I use Scroogle or ixQuick for my searches to keep my privacy. On the rare occasions I watched YouTube videos I did so without going to the YouTube site when possible. I was working to protect my privacy.

But then I slipped and got a gmail account just to “check it out” at first. It became my main account over time. (it really is one of the nicest webmails out there). I rationalized that since I used POP access and regularly completely flushed the account, that I wasn’t giving away too much. None of the “Free” webmails are truly free. They all advertise and I suspect that most track and collect information on the people using them.

The problem was that Gmail was my gateway service, to get it I had to set up a Google account and that led to me using other Google services. I soon found myself using Google Reader. I have 2 laptops and it was nice to be able to read my morning headlines from either. Then I found myself using Google talk. Not a lot. Just as the service that my Microblog updates flowed in through… But you can see the trend starting.

Luckily due to this recent push in my life to be “Free” as in speech and due to my normally abnormal (for this day and age) attachment to my privacy, I woke up and realized “Egad”. Here I am just giving my information away. It is truly interesting to see how “just checking out Gmail” had started to turn into giving away all my privacy.

Now, due to who and how I am I’d never have used all of Google’s services. The thought of using Google Docs is anathema to me. I’ve been around since the early days of the Internet so I prefer to actually read the Usenet (Google Groups is mostly just a front-end for the Usenet) directly. And other services just don’t appeal to me. Where they got me, and in truth might have continued to pull me in further is with new services (Gmail was new when I signed up). I’m sure that when Wave comes out the “techie” part of me will want to go and check it out. This time however I think the “sorry, no, that’s my privacy we’re talking about..” side will win.

I have now taken steps to correct my slip. I’m quickly phasing out Gmail. I’ll phase out Google Talk also. I have moved my RSS feeds off of Google reader and into a feed reader on my laptops. I’ve moved my Microblog updates to come in on my Jabber account thus depriving Google of that stream of information. It feels good. I’m well on my way to kicking the Google habit. My goal is to be 100% Google free before the end of the year. I hope to nuke my Google account in less then 3 month. (I have to make sure I didn’t miss changing my e-mail some place so that nothing breaks on me).

I’d like to challenge others to try and do the same. I know that many people will not feel inclined to completely remove Google from their lives.. But take a few moments and think about just how much information you’re streaming through Google. Then think about how you can go about reducing that. Perhaps start by dropping the services that feel like they are giving away too much personal information first and go from there.

I’ll write more on this journey as it evolves, It will be interesting to try to be 100% Google free.

Another great article about why you might want to be Google Free can be found here

Recent Thoughts on Social Media

August 14, 2009 at 1:04 pm | In Life, Tech | 2 Comments
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I find myself pondering the direction in which things are moving and in truth have been moving for quite some time. I have been around the Internet since the days when it was text only and things like Usenet and IRC were king. Postings on the Usenet (before it became a waste land for binaries) were considered, heart felt, and usually several paragraph long. One had to actually take time to read them and time to formulate a proper response. Similarly Chatting on IRC usually meant having deep conversations often lasting hours.

Since those days there has been a slow but steady march towards more chatter with less substance. Today we have MicroBlogs and other social media that limit the users ability to converse to a scant 140 characters. Although I believe that it is entirely possible to have a conversation 140 characters at a time. I do not believe that it is possible to have a meaningful discussion. I constantly find myself wanting to comment on something I’ve seen on Twitter or one of the other Social Networking sites but I find there is no way to fit my thought into the constraints of the medium. I am sure others suffer the same fate, and so, conversations on these sites stay simple, superficial, and often highly polarized (yes it is… no it isn’t…. yes!! it is!!… etc).

Please do not get me wrong. I am NOT saying that people that use these sites/services are simple minded or lacking depth. I am saying that the medium is not useful for in-depth, considered, and meaningful discussion.

These sites/services allow people to have a voice and to comment on things. I have seen from my own experience with Social Media that it is much easier to comment on something than to form a considered opinion and discuss it properly. I can see how it would be very easy to fall into commenting on this and that and then commenting on peoples comments on your comments. I can also see how this would detract from doing more considered work. It is much easier to throw out 200 comments then to take the time to consider all sides of a issue form a considered opinion and write out your thoughts in something measured in paragraphs or pages rather then characters.

There is also the other side of the problem that the Social Media phenomenon is half symptom and half cause of. The continued shrinking of peoples attention spans. I am certain that by this point in this blog posting I have lost a significant portion of people who started reading it. In writing this I have broken one of the main caveats of having a popular blog, keep it short and sweet. Luckily I am not interested in having a popular blog. I wish to have a meaningful one.

The comments above on popularity bring me to another phenomenon of which Social media is both symptom and cause. If the generation coming of age in the 80’s was the “Me” generation, then the current group of people coming of age could well be describes as the “Look at Me” generation.

Social Media fosters a culture of faux popularity. The more followers you can gather the more respected you are in the current Social media culture. Sadly this too is superficial and unconsidered. Followers are not friends, nor acquaintances. The people that gather these crowds do not know any of these people in a meaningful way, no more then a street performer knows or has a relationship or friendship with the crowd that gathers to watch him or her while they perform. In both cases once the performance ceases to be amusing the crowd will quickly drift away. However in the Social Media world few people take the time to un-follow someone unless they become annoying. This creates a false sense of someones popularity and a false respect for the person.

I’m not saying that Social media is evil or should be done away with. I’m saying it is part of a long, on going trend towards the superficial. So we now have superficial conversations on superficial topics with superficial “friends” using a superficial medium. We are heading towards a place where people, instead of having discussions, thoughts, and feelings, have performance content and viewers (Followers). This will be a sad and lonely place when life gets rough. Because viewers are notoriously fickle and tend not to stick around if things get heavy, or require them to think, feel, or god forbid act (well other then commenting).

Towards a Free (as in speech) system – (or Flash Reduced diet #3)

July 25, 2009 at 1:14 pm | In Life, Tech, XO | 1 Comment
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It seems that one of the side effects of my Flash reduced diet is a desire to get away from all restricted formats. In looking back I can see that this journey actually began when I got my OLPC XO during last years Give 1 Get 1 program. As I progress on this journey I am stripping away more and more of my reliance on restricted/patent encumbered formats. I am also working hard to rid my systems of any Proprietary binary blobs or software with restrictive or anti-social licenses. I have cleaned up Ubuntu on my main laptop as much as I can and am now looking into replacing Ubuntu with gNewSense. The main stumbling block to doing so is the fact that my main laptop is my Asterisk/Voip centre and I’ll have to do the re-install at a time when there would be no incoming calls.

The thing that has surprised me is how little has broken. As I mentioned in my previous postings on Flash reduction things definitely do break, but nothing that I couldn’t easily live without.

My biggest concern was dropping restricted kernel modules as I feared that some of my hardware may cease to function. As it turns out I have been quite good at buying hardware that is fully supported by open source software. My next concern was that I might have trouble with Various media types but again nothing significant broke I can still watch the CBC news at night just fine. I did loose mplayer, VLC, and Avidemux that I had come to depend on but they have been replaced with other tools that do not have the licensing complications of those applications. I have managed to completely do away with the multiverse repositories on my main laptop.

My next challenge will be to do the same on the XO. This may be challenging as the XO is shipped with proprietary kernel modules for the wireless card. and I suspect the Video will be problematic. My Ultimate goal will be to get gNewSense on my main laptop and then work on porting it to the XO. It may well be worth the effort of porting to the XO even if the wireless doesn’t work as one can always add an external wireless card that is supported by Free software.

Windows 7 will not be for “Sale”

July 4, 2009 at 8:17 am | In Tech | 1 Comment
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With the up coming release of Windows 7 and all the hype surrounding it. I would like to take this opportunity to remind people, the press, and that blogosphere that Windows 7 will not be “For Sale” it will be “For lease“.

The terms of Microsoft’s license agreement make it very clear that you do not in any way OWN your copy of Windows. Thus you can not have bought it. Buying implies a transfer of ownership. No such transfer Ever occurs with Windows software.

I personally feel that there should be strict rules governing the terms that vendors and Microsoft can use to describe the availability of Windows 7. I be happy with a much more honest terms like: “For Lease”, Rent, or License. Rather then the inaccurate terms: “For Sale”, Buy, Get.

It should be required of Microsoft (and of most other software manufacturers), and their Vendors to use terminology that avoids any impression of the transfer of ownership. Because if they were honest they’d let you know that the only way to “Buy” Windows 7 would be to buy the Microsoft as a company and all the technology that they have copyrights and patents to.

Flash Reduced Diet #2

June 22, 2009 at 3:32 pm | In Tech | 1 Comment
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About a month ago I started my Flash Reduced diet. I must say, it’s a month on, and I am really enjoying the current state of affairs. Gnash although not perfect, renders what it does render well. As I mentioned in my previous post gives a lot more control to the user, including automatically saving video. I enjoy knowing that all LSO’s are going straight to /dev/null/ now (for the non Linux users in the crowd that is a black hole from which nothing returns). I’ve yet to play with the whitelist/Blacklist. I definitely would recommend Gnash to anyone looking for a Flash alternative or just looking to have a Flash reduced diet.

I am still pondering going totally Flash Free.. but as that would break a lot of sites I’m not (quite) there yet.

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