About freedom and tools

Mako's post about the OLPC initiative got me thinking. He says there that the third world countries are on the verge of becoming "technologised", only there is one problem. The great multi-national corporations are interested in transforming them into "markets". Markets of consumers, that is.

Living in Romania, I can sadly confirm this. The vast majority of Romanians have become mindless drones which will blissfully consume whatever the TV has to offer. And I don't think this problem is specific to Romania. But I digress.

The way in which the OLPC laptop differs from, say, a mobile phone, is that you can program the thing. As in, you, the user, can modify it to suit your needs. You become from a mere consumer, a producer, someone who can solve his/her own needs, as well as the needs of people around him/her.

This difference is, I believe, an essential one. It's why the Internet is better than TV. It's true, the web is full of the same advertising and mind-control-crap you can see on TV. The difference is that people like you and me can participate as active content creators. And like this, in the sea of brain-numbing flashy banners, we can have islands of sanity. Places were people can think with their own brains, instead of going crazy for the latest brain washing machine.

The difference between "read-only" products and "read-write" ones I was referring to earlier can be seen in many places. Free software is one of them. Free culture is another one. The ability to modify the tools we use (and our environment too, for that matter) is what separated us from the apes in the first place: we were tool-making monkeys, initially.

But enough with the generalities: Take me, for instance. Initially, I switched from MS-DOS to Linux because I found Windows too buggy to be usable. Now, I hear that recent versions have improved, but I won't switch back exactly because of the freedom: Once you've seen the power freedom gives you, you can never go back. In Linux (or any other free OS, for that matter), I am not only allowed, but actively encouraged to fix the things I don't like. I can become a creator.

In a bare Linux installation, you have around half a dozen interpreters and compilers. Compare that to Windows or Solaris, where you have to pay hundreds of dollars just to get a half decent compiler.

So, my message to you, my dear readers (yes, all the three of you ;-) ), is to go, and start creating something. Stop being a consumer.

posted Tuesday, December 20th 2005 at 02:19 | permalink

Your opinion is important to us

In what is apparently an ongoing series of anti corporate-bullshit posts, allow me to introduce to you this new installment. This week's guest: once again, Yahoo!

When logging in to read my mail today, I was greeted by this weasely little popup, that somehow managed to escape Firefox's popup blocking (don't you just love it when they're being sneaky?). Before closing it, I managed to read on it: "Your opinion is important to us! Please take the time to answer this poll to help us improve, bla bla bla, yadda yadda yadda". Since I don't want to miss an opportunity to say what I think, I thought, what the heck, it's only 30 seconds. So I took the poll, to give my valuable opinion to Yahoo.

How naive I was. What do you think they wanted to know? If I like their spam-blocker? Whether I think they should forward mails for free? Well... not really. They were interested in my age, occupation, and online time. Ladies and gentlemen, I have become a slice of a graph. It's so nice to feel taken into account. Thank you, Yahoo.

posted Friday, December 16th 2005 at 12:04 | permalink

George Orwell

Ever since I read 1984, I've been amazed with Orwell's capacity to "see the future". It's frightening how many similarities can be seen between what he wrote there and the "real world" of today.

And yesterday, I ran into the preface to Animal Farm which he wrote, but wasn't published because of reasons that will become obvious after you've read it. It's fascinating how many of his points remain valid today.

Quote of choice:

If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

posted Wednesday, December 14th 2005 at 16:40 | permalink

MS Paint tricks

Ever wanted to do cool graphics just by using MS Paint, but you feared your skills aren't "leet" enough? Well, FEAR NO MORE, for the official MVP for MS Paint is here to help you. You will learn how to make simple effects such as shadows, or anti-aliasing, and even more complicated ones such as hair, by using simple tools that you can find "around the home". :-)

posted Monday, December 5th 2005 at 01:17 | permalink

Peak Oil

I just had to mention this article about peak oil. It gives a nice, objective rundown about what this "peak oil" thing is all about. Quote of choice:

Cornucopians discount the threat Peak Oil represents by insisting that the market will adapt. Of course, they are correct, but they suffer a failure of imagination to consider what the market's adaptations might include. Genocidal warfare is a very efficient way to reduce demand, for example. As Tainter highlighted in Collapse of Complex Societies, collapse is an economizing process.

Food for thought...

Via reddit.

posted Saturday, December 3rd 2005 at 15:27 | permalink

Idiots

Well, just when I thought I saw it all...

Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, let me introduce to you, from the building - the - team - with - a - team-building - algorithm department...

The worst corporate song ever.

Via The Register.

P.S. Dude, go watch The Corporation, now. Seriously.

posted Thursday, December 1st 2005 at 15:45 | permalink

One of those days...

I don't know how to feel: today has been "one of those days". Those days when it feels like there's a glitch in reality, like there's "a disturbance in the force", if you will. One of those days when you discover that the things you've been worrying about, suddenly become irrelevant.

First, I've watched "The Corporation". I don't know what is it with films that have anything to do with Michael Moore, but after each of them I felt shaken. He must be really enjoying this. Anyway, it's a film worth seeing. If you haven't seen it already, go see it now. Seriously.

Even if it doesn't give many solutions to the "corporate problems", at least it exposes the problem in an articulate fashion. And knowing the problem is the first step towards solving it.

And then, just as I finished watching the film, still thinking about it, what do I find on digg? The former Canadian Minister of Defence says UFOs are real and we're on the edge of galactic war?!? Because of the United States?? WTF is this, Star Trek? Five Klingon war ships at 12 o'clock, sir. Should we arm the photon torpedos?

Man, I haven't felt like this since the John Titor story. I need some sleep. Either that, or, as Queen would say, I'm going slightly mad. ;-)

posted Saturday, November 26th 2005 at 02:23 | permalink