Asheesh Laroia: How I feel about Google+ (not thrilled)
Image credit: Lake Shimmer by (nc-sa) cobalt123.
The beautiful photo above is what reflections should look like. If you don't like Google's shimmering +1 buttons, try the convenient AdBlock filter Tom Morris wrote. I also block this image.
I have been reading a lot about Google+. I'm sure a lot of people put a lot of hard work into it. Lots of people seem to enjoy using it and appreciate its features. For my part, right now, when I see Google+ mentioned, the smile vanishes from my face. I just have a few thoughts. It's anti-competitive. If you could ask Google, "How much for a shimmering +1 button next to every search result?" you would be laughed out of the room. But they managed to offer themselves that unique marketing opportunity. I know that (1) most regulators who see this anti-competitive behavior won't see it as an anti-trust violation, and (2) the damage is already done, and no retribution in the future can act fast enough to fix the unfair advantage Google gave itself in the Internet-mediated personal communication (and ad sales) markets. The shimmering is distracting, making my online search experience worse. I know that Google is holding nothing back; they are willing to distract me from my intended use of Google in order to branch out their business. (If you haven't seen the shimmering +1 button, it's next to every web search result, and if you mouse over any part of the result, it does a wavy dance.) The most-touted feature is a clone of Diaspora. This by itself is fine; software should help users by having the best features imaginable. But the enthusiasm I've seen within the free software community (like when I read about Google+ on Slashdot and Planet Debian) should at least recognize that Google "circles" are a clone of Diaspora's Aspects. Centralization on the web feels like a personal attack. Corporations on the web are like unstoppable machines rolling us toward a future of corporate eavesdropping, central points of failure, and end-users sold en masse to advertisers. It enables a future of individual "platform owners" who can change the lived experience of untold hundreds of millions with tweaks that benefit their actual customers (the advertisers). There's not much I can do about that. I happen to take this personally: I am part of a small culture of people who run their own mail and web servers and understand the importance of software freedom. This is a part of my identity. I watch as its traces online vanish, replaced by something more efficient and terrifying. It makes me sad. I'm probably going to end up using it despite all these pain points. That's how I know that I am being steamrolled. The reasons I have given above are not reasons to not use Google+. They're just reasons that I'm going to frown all the way to the address bar. In weeks to months to years, the service will grow an enthusiastic userbase. At that point, personally, I'll have to make a choice between connecting with those people on their terms, or not staying in touch with them. Already, professionally, the idea has already come up on #openhatch that Google+ could help us reach people willing to contribute to open source. Are my gripes worth holding OpenHatch back, or worth isolating myself over? Probably not.
On my system, I happen to set 
We are few weeks away from the start of DebConf11. Excitement runs high in Debian-land. The two most worthy weeks of the year, every year, loom close. Our Bosnian friends have done a great job of finding and defending an amazing proposal, and are now facing the hard work and permanent adrenaline levels of being in charge of the closest I have seen to a herd of (well-behaved but wild and untamable) cats.
I have organized DebConf in my country. It was hellish, but at the same time, it's one of my most cherished experiences. And I'm sure the same will be said by the leaders of each successive bid It is one of the most rewarding experiences you can imagine.
Next year, DebConf will be held in tropical Managua, Nicaragua. But, where will we meet in 2013? Well, that depends on you, my dear reader! Do you want to work your ass off for Debian and have utter fun? Do you want to show and share your country with this huge family of developers? Start thinking about pushing for a DebConf13 bid!
Do you have to be at Banja Luka to propose your bid? No. You can proxy via somebody I'd suggest to do it via somebody who knows the location you are suggesting, but basically, choose a friend that you trust that trusts you. Of course, you can participate in the presentation session via IRC.
Do you have to be a Debian Developer to propose a bid? No. For DebConf9, none of the C ceres guys was a DD; for DebConf10, some of the people most involved from the local New Yorkers were not DDs. For DC11, none of our dear and overworked hosts in Bosnia are DDs. And for DC12, the Nicaraguan crew is also made from people interested in getting closer to the Debian project, but not DDs.
Do you have to decide now? No. This is just a call for a first presentation, but the decision regarding DC13 will be taken probably around March 2012. However, giving a nice presentation at DebConf helps a lot, gives you visibility, and will get the ball rolling.
Is there a geographical bias? Slight. So far, and since the second DebConf, we have kept the tradition not to repeat continents on two successive DebConfs. This is not a hard condition, however!
What do you need to start thinking about? Go visit our prospective location checklist at 
So, I haven t read the planets in a couple of days but I m going to guess that, like twitter, a lot of people are going to be raving about Google+.
For those of you who haven t heard about Google+, it s a new Social Networking site from Google and it brings a new take to the world of social networking.
In real life, we communicate differently to the different people in our social contexts. For example, most people will converse differently to their work colleagues than they will to their family. They ll converse differently with their drinking buddies than they will with their Family. There are things that you want only certain people to know, and there are aspects of your personality that you only want to show to certain people.
I think giving an example here might be better. This is an example of a friend of mine, who we ll call Fred. Fred is a teacher. Fred also likes to go out of a weekend and party till dawn, while consuming lots of tequila. I, as Fred s friend, am on a night out of drunken debauchery, and I ve my camera with me, and decide to post lots of pictures online of the night s revelry.
The next day, one of Fred s colleagues logs into a Social Networking site, and sees said pictures in Fred s profile. Now things aren t looking so bright for Fred. He no longer gives across that professional image that he should do at work. Some may say that this is Fred s fault for going out and doing these things, but everyone s entitled to a personal life, right?
At the moment, on Fred s social networking site, it s an all or nothing option. If he allows you access to his profile, he allows you access to see anything and everything that might show up on there. (It s a bit more complicated than this, but let s keep it simple for now). Every time Fred has someone add him as a contact he has to make that decision Do I want this person to be able to see everything I may or may not get up to .
Put simply, how many of you have refused someone to add you on the Social Networking site du jour because what you show on their may be harmful to you, or give over an impression that isn t what you want to give across.
Enter Circles. Circles brings to the social networking scene the way we interact with people in real life. We show a different aspect of our personality to different people we interact with. I m a bit of an organisational freak, and I know that there are different groups of people that either for the fact of portraying a persona, or not annoying everyone else, I might want to push in different ways. For example, I might want to send out a BBQ at my house, bring lots of alcohol message to all my friends, but don t really want my co-workers coming along and making it so I have to be on my best behaviour. Below is a screenshot of my (current) circles.
As you can see I have a fair few, and only a relative few people.
Now, let s say that I wanted to send out that BBQ message
Over the next few days, I ll write a bit more about Google+, but I thought I d start with an introduction into the Circles feature. I ll be giving a bit of feedback about what I like, what I dislike, and also making a few suggestions for what I d like to see happen in the future (and probably use the word siloing a fair bit!)
For now, toodles.
Year ago, when 
Given that I was responsible for putting together the system
architecture for 
The 
Sam Hartman is a Debian developer since 2000. He has never taken any sort of official role within Debian (that is besides package maintainer), yet I know him for his very thoughtful contributions to discussions both on mailing lists and IRL during Debconf.
Until I met him at Debconf, I didn t know that he was blind, and the first reaction was to be impressed because it must be some tremendous effort to read the volume of information that Debian generates on mailing lists. In truth he s at ease with his computer much like I am although he uses it in a completely different way. Read on to learn more, my questions are in bold, the rest is by Sam.
Raphael: Who are you?
Sam: I m Sam Hartman. I m a 35-year-old software engineer. I am a principal consultant and co-owner of a small consulting company, called 
The 
Craig Small gives a very bad advice on his recent post 
