HOPE Day 1
Posted by Eric Stein - July 22, 2006 CE @ 19:46:22 UTC
Yesterday was a very interesting day. We got in the car and ended up driving for over six hours (1.5 of which were us lost in New York as it poured cats and dogs). We finally got there at about 11 AM, but as I wasn't the one with the reservation, I didn't get checked in until about 2 PM.
The first scheduled event I attented was the keynote address at 4 PM by Richard Stallman. The first time I saw Stallman speak, I didn't experience much different than I expected. He talked about the specific freedoms required for Free Software and only ranted about Bill Gates and George W. Bush a little. Then I watched a video recorded at an FSF Europe event in which RMS talked about the changes to GPLv3. That makes 3 times so far - and every time, that part of the speech has been recycled. This is appropriate at events with mainstream press coverage (such as the FSF Europe event), but 85% of the audience wasn't being told anything new at the other events, including today's.
The majority of the keynote was worthwhile and very informative. Stallman gave a brief history of hacker culture, including the origin of the pejorative use of the word 'hacker'. In 1980, a journalist misused the word to refer to the subset of the hacker community involved in breaking the new security systems on many online hosts.
Another issue clarified by Stallman was that DRM is allowed by GPLv3 - but it is afforded no special permissions under the DMCA, either. Indeed, any restrictions of the 5 freedoms imposed by local laws are explicitly disclaimed. This is not to say that Stallman approves of DRM - he mentioned that a good website on the topic is defectivebydesign.org.
Anoter random tidbit: Stallman runs Ututo Linux. Also, GNU HURD is unlikely to be finished in the forseeable future. I don't remember the exact wording, but the exchange went like this:
The first scheduled event I attented was the keynote address at 4 PM by Richard Stallman. The first time I saw Stallman speak, I didn't experience much different than I expected. He talked about the specific freedoms required for Free Software and only ranted about Bill Gates and George W. Bush a little. Then I watched a video recorded at an FSF Europe event in which RMS talked about the changes to GPLv3. That makes 3 times so far - and every time, that part of the speech has been recycled. This is appropriate at events with mainstream press coverage (such as the FSF Europe event), but 85% of the audience wasn't being told anything new at the other events, including today's.
The majority of the keynote was worthwhile and very informative. Stallman gave a brief history of hacker culture, including the origin of the pejorative use of the word 'hacker'. In 1980, a journalist misused the word to refer to the subset of the hacker community involved in breaking the new security systems on many online hosts.
Another issue clarified by Stallman was that DRM is allowed by GPLv3 - but it is afforded no special permissions under the DMCA, either. Indeed, any restrictions of the 5 freedoms imposed by local laws are explicitly disclaimed. This is not to say that Stallman approves of DRM - he mentioned that a good website on the topic is defectivebydesign.org.
Anoter random tidbit: Stallman runs Ututo Linux. Also, GNU HURD is unlikely to be finished in the forseeable future. I don't remember the exact wording, but the exchange went like this:
<person> when can we expect HURD to be complete?
<rms> It's delayed. The mach microkernel is not suited for what we need, and there is currently no microkernel to replace it. But that's not very important - you can use Linux.
Some of the questions from the audience were amusing.<rms> It's delayed. The mach microkernel is not suited for what we need, and there is currently no microkernel to replace it. But that's not very important - you can use Linux.
<person> How can I grow a rockin' beard like yours?
* audience laughs
<rms> Well, I don't fertilize it or anything...
<person> so it's au naturale then?
<rms> I guess...
Due to problems with FreeBSD and my camera playing nice, I won't be posting the pictures I take this weekend until I get home. They'll be integrated into the posts that they correspond to.* audience laughs
<rms> Well, I don't fertilize it or anything...
<person> so it's au naturale then?
<rms> I guess...
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