Search Results: "Andrew Suffield"

21 February 2014

Jakub Wilk: For those who care about snowclones

Instances of the for those who care about X snowclone on Debian mailing lists:

11 December 2007

MJ Ray: Movements: back again (just)

I'm back (again) but I'm not feeling 100% well (again). I'll write about the various events I attended and share the pictures as soon as I get bluetooth file transfer working (is that obex?) but here are some sites I commented on recently:
When is it going to be the norm for JavaScript?
Never, I hope.
Down with the Press Release!!
I wonder if I didn't like this because open letters aren't very common here.
Print before you think! - Atomo64's Blog - by Raphael
Reposting the old psnup -2 trick... works in Mozilla-based browsers, at least
How Old Are ProBlogger Readers? Poll Results
I whinge about ProBlogger's misuse of bar charts again...
How Much Money Do Bloggers Earn Blogging?
and again... guess I should stop doing that. But histograms ROCK. Excuse me - I'm still ill...
blog.aksw.org Blog Archive Open-source innovation platform Cofundos.org
I've seen a couple of these cooperative free software funding ideas recently. Here's one...
Information Unlimited A proposal for user-driven commercial free software development.
and here's another...
gmane.org.fsf.europe.discussion
and here's a little background on the first.
Sustaining Alternative Media - Bristol Indymedia to Bristol Social Forum
It's just too damn awkward to contribute to BIMC.
Miriam Ruiz: Journalists avoiding writing about Free Software?
Since when have journalists avoided writing about stuff because of criticism? Sounds like an excuse to me.
Issues Forums in the UK, Meet Tim Erickson in November at London E-Democracy 07 Conference E-Democracy.Org - Project Blog
I did meet Tim. Which was nice.
Labour: Queen's Speech - full statement
I saw this site advertised on TV after the speech, visited it, asked a question. No answer. 'nuff said. I asked a question on another page and it was deleted unanswered. Control freakery at its best.
ConservativeHome's ToryDiary: Cameron takes Tory message of social justice to Labour heartlands
My question about the surprising Conservative Cooperative Movement announcement. No answer. Are all the political parties similar? Do any of them have any answers?
BBC Internet Blog - Linux Figures
Part one of the reaction of the BBC director who thought they only have 600 Linux users.
BBC Internet Blog - Open Standards
Part two of the reaction "The BBC is committed to open standards [...] wherever possible" - yeah, tell that to their satellite system and the Ceefax-killers! (Warning: may contain Andrew Suffield...)
BBC Internet Blog - Operating System Figures
Part three - explains just how their analysis system got the numbers so horrendously wrong. "All of the BBC's regular reporting mechanisms use the User Agent string" - D'oh!

19 July 2007

MJ Ray: zugschlus becomes asuffield

Marc 'Zugschlus' Haber:
"I think I'm going to stop being responsive to users. They're not worth the blood pressure."
Andrew Suffield:
"But realistically, all that is fairly minor compared to the number of idiot users, idiot developers, kooks, luddites, zealots, managers, politicians, and self-obsessed fools that everybody has to deal with in the free software world."
I think I have a new source of blunt put-downs.

18 January 2007

Clint Adams: Things that did not happen at Google last night

I was en route to an event by myself, when I received an invitation to accompany some people to a movie. Rather than simply declining, I asserted that there was no way in hell I'd cancel my plans to go see some inferior film with that particular crowd. So, what did they do? They cancelled their plans and followed me. Now one of them was apparently in heat, for instead of trying to enjoy the event, she decided that it was some kind of speed dating event and before long she was coveting one of the event staffers. This offends me on so many levels, I won't even bother to explain. Eventually she managed to discourage herself so much that she went home, but the sanctity of the event was still spoiled. Some random person came up to me and asked me to explain dynamic DNS to him. Do I look like the type of person who would have and give the answers to such questions? I opted to not beat him down with a chair or steal his Treo and slit his throat with it. Instead, I sat down and began explaining. Now some girl, who had marked me as her prey, spotted me sitting there next to this guy who bore a resemblance to Andrew Suffield. Seeing his long, flowing hair, she immediately concluded that he was a girl, and therefore a threat to our marriage or whatever she had concocted for us in her dreamworld. So she swooped down out of the sky, ready to claw his eyes out, realized that he was probably male, and breathed a sigh of relief. I concluded my exposition, and the young lad rewarded me for my daily good deed with a thank-you and a shake from his slimy, sweaty hand. Ew. Ew. Ew. EW! He departed, but the girl did not. She had with her about seven wingmen. I am told that they are wingirls (and not winggirls) because most of them are female. I am not sure that I agree, so I will call them wingnuts as a compromise. Now I have to wonder why one would need seven wingnuts. It seems to me that if one is planning ahead to require the assistance of seven, one must be hunting prey that will pay a high cost to escape. Furthermore, if one is fixin' to (or fi't'n't'a in Alabama) ensnare and entrap such an unwilling quarry, what are one's motives? What is the underlying scheme? The possibilities are horrifying. It was difficult to have a good time, but I did it anyway.

1 March 2006

Julien Blache: For those who still care about the Debian Project

Yes, the title of this post is yet another FTWCA. The question is, do YOU still care about the Debian Project ? I refused to take part to the recent flames, aka the FTWCA threads, but given the upcoming DPL election and the recent events, I feel it’s time to write something up about the current status of the Project. I’d like my readers to ask themselves: “Do I still care about the Debian Project, about its goals, about its spirit, about what it really is ?”. You may find that the answer to this question won’t be the one you expected, either way. Before reading further, you may want to quickly google for “Teletubbies” if you don’t know what this thing is. It may help you better understand the rest of this post. This post is a long one, thanks in advance to all of you who will read it until the end. I may refer to some people in this post. This is by no mean a personal attack, so please don’t take it as such. Recent events I mentionned “recent events” earlier, here are the events I am referring to: the FTWCA threads, DDs willing to expel Andrew Suffield because of his post to d-d-a, listmaster deciding to block Andrew from posting to d-d-a again, Rapha l Hertzog promoting his “social pressure” thing again, and some other bits that happened here and there. The problem: a bunch of Teletubbies
The Debian Project is a technical community, which some DDs are now trying to turn into a social community. Obviously, this can’t work. Why ? For a start, because the NM process has not been designed to select people based on social abilities (there’s a minimum, though, but other than that, that’s absolutely not the point of the NM process). New developers are selected on purely technical criterions, which is what you would expect from a technical community like ours. Adding social tests and whatnot isn’t going to help; the NM process is enough of a pain in the ass already for the applicants. We are a thousand Free Software hackers collaborating to the Project, dedicated to producing the best operating systems ever, and we want these operating systems to be Free Software, as defined by our guidelines on that matter, that is, to say, the DFSG. We all agree with the Foundation Documents of the Debian Project, we agree with the DMUP, and that’s pretty much all we all agree with. We never agreed to be nice to each other, we never agreed to group hugs at developer’s meetings or anything else. Our beloved Teletubbies are complaining about the “frequent” flamewars that happen on the Debian lists, and to be honest, one must acknowledge the fact that those flamewars have been a bit too frequent recently. What I find quite amusing, really, is that most of these flamewars have been started by one of the Teletubbies and mention Ubuntu. Now the same people want to come up with a mailing-lists code of conduct, similar to the one Ubuntu has. Ironic, isn’t it ? The same people are willing to expel Andrew for his post on d-d-a. Is it coherent ? The whole “social pressure” thing is nothing less than intimidation, and this is not acceptable. Similarly, the reactions to Andrew’s post on d-d-a aren’t acceptable either. Why ? Because this Project used to be open-minded. It looks like a bunch of people lost this, and I really feel sorry for them. Your reactions to Andrew’s post are really over-exagerated. You need to take a break and a reality check. If you aren’t open-minded enough to grok Andrew’s post, you’re not open-minded enough for this Project, or even for Free Software. Some of you also need to come back down to Earth. We are a volunteers organization producing Free OSes. We are doing it all for fun, so stop being so fucking serious and pull that tree out of your ass. You’ll feel better afterwards. It’s also quite amusing when the same people are announcing, on side channels (IRC, …), that J. Doe made it to their kill-file. I don’t use kill-files myself, because I believe that everybody has something interesting to say, because this is an open-minded Free Software Project, because the people I would kill-file might be maintaining something someday related to the packages I maintain and I’d need to work with them. No matter what I think of my fellow DDs, I never refused to work with anyone. People please, learn to put the Project’s interests before yours. Why ? Why now ? Why ? Because I joined a technical community of Free Software hackers, not a social community of Free Software integrists to spend my holidays with. Why now ? Because the vote on GR 2006_01 is currently running. Because the DPL election is on its way too, it’s that time of the year again. Because out of 7 candidates, 5 are, to diverse degrees, Teletubbies and 1 is the worst DPL candidate EVER (if you don’t know why and are a DD, log on to master and grep for his email address in the -private archives. Not his name, because his firstname at the time was Jonathan — something you must think about when you’ll vote). That leaves one sane candidate only; Bill, I hope your platform will be good. Solutions ? Realize that the Debian Project is the Debian Project and has nothing to do with Ubuntu, remember its goals, its spirit, remember why you joined (if you joined to get the @debian.org address, GO AWAY). This means: Remember that there is only a limited number of people making a lot of noise. So if you belong to what I believe is a silent majority, please raise your voice. Help tell those people to FOAD and let’s get back to work. When you’ll vote for the DPL election, please, think twice. Be extra-careful, most of the candidates are really good politicians.

20 February 2006

Jaldhar Vyas: An Editorial Change to the DFSG Should Allow Wrappers Around Andrew Suffield in main

Discuss.

19 January 2006

MJ Ray: Debian, lesbian

Here's my view on it, briefly:

  1. Off-topic announcement by Rapha l Hertzog;
  2. Direct action by Andrew Suffield. Satire, nodding to the debian/lesbian merchandise which has been sold for years by shops and shows. Wrong, but understandable if you remember the OP killfiled Andrew Suffield;
  3. Roger Leigh uses last August on -private to advocate Andrew Suffield's expulsion (FWIW, I reread it and I don't believe Andrew was "detrimental to the project" - if so, a lot of the repliers should be in the expulsion queue first.);
  4. Andrew Suffield describes his actions (biased but accurate IMO);
  5. Joey announces the punishment.
What happens next? I don't remember being asked about my religious views during NM (and I think death is a religious topic, as do many others), so I'm surprised that the August 2005 incident is still being used to justify hatred. I disliked the death notice but I was quiet at the time, for various reasons (jet-lag and more). If what to do about death is still such a hot topic, I think debian should address it before any DDs grieve again.

27 December 2005

Matt Brown: Miredo/Toredo Patent Status

Miredo is an implementation of the Teredo - IPv6 over IPv4 tunnelling protocol which I have been playing with lately. I have filed an ITP bug to get Miredo into Debian, however this has been delayed while I try and get a handle on some of the patent issues surrounding the Teredo protocol. While Miredo itself is licensed under the GPLv2 the state of the Toredo protocol is less clear. Teredo was created by Christian Huitema, an architect with Microsoft. It is currently a Proposed Internet Standard waiting for the IETF editor to review it and assign an RFC number for it, IANA will then assign a permanent prefix for use by Teredo clients, servers and relays. According to the IETF IPR disclosure page, Microsoft has filed a statement of claim against the technologies described in the Proposed Standard. Microsoft states that they will provide a Royalty-Free, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory License to All Implementers in their statement. Specifically the license that they offer the Teredo protocol under is called the Microsoft Royalty Free Protocol License Agreement. This is a catch-all license that Microsoft uses for all client-server protocols used by Windows. The license itself doesn’t make any claims about Microsoft’s IP rights, it simply gives you a license to use any rights Microsoft may have in the specific protocol you are using. For example at the end of the license agreement you select which protocols you wish to have covered under the agreement. Alongside Teredo you can also choose protocols such as IPv4, DNS, 6to4 and lots of other common protocols. The actual patent application for Teredo is incredibly difficult to find, the IETF IPR disclosoure doesn’t link to it, none of the proposed standards link to it and googling for “Teredo Patent Application” isn’t particularly successful either. In the end it turns out that the title is quirkily named “Allowing IPv4 clients to communicate over an IPv6 network when behind a network address translator with reduced server workload” and was published as Patent Application 20040190549 on the 30th September 2004. Incidentally if anyone knows of a nicer way to link to a US Patent Application than the ugly URL above, I would love to know. Half the reason that the Patent Application was hard to find is that it doesn’t actually mention Microsoft anywhere at all, unlike the ~5000 odd other Patent Applications currently filed by Microsoft. From what I can tell it appears that Christian Huitema has filed the application through is own personal attorneys independently of Microsoft. So where does this leave us in terms of getting Miredo into Debian? The short answer is I’m not entirely sure. I can’t seem to find a definitive statement regarding Debian’s position on patents anywhere, the best I’ve been able to come up with is a debian-legal post from Andrew Suffield from Jan 2005 which offhandedly describes the informal Debian patent policy as:
“ignore patents until somebody starts to wave them around, then drop the offending thing like a hot rock”
So maybe I’ve already shot Miredo in the foot, by investigating its Patent Status… :( My take on the situation seems to be that Debian is perfectly happy (and perhaps has no other option but) to ignore patents applicable to software in Debian until it becomes apparent that a particular patent is being enforced or has the potential to be enforced. So the question now becomes whether the Microsoft Royalty Free Patent License is acceptable enough to Debian to allow Miredo to be included in main or non-free, or whether it simply can’t be redistributed at all. The main problem I see with the license is that it does not permit you to sublicense other parties to make use of the Toredo technology used by Miredo. If this were a copyright license then that would most certainly fail to pass the Debian Free Software Guidelines, does Debian treat patents in the same manner? I think it’s time for me to post to debian-legal to seek some “official” guidance on the situation, but hopefully this post has ordered my thoughts enough that I can now write a coherent mail seeking help. If you have any comments or pointers to Debian statements on this sort of situation that I have missed they would be most welcome.